Charlie Christie calls on Inverness Caley Thistle shareholders to back CVA that will allow Alan Savage to take football club out of administration
Inverness Caledonian Thistle legend Charlie Christie has called on all shareholders to back Alan Savage’s bid to buy the club when approached by joint-administrators BDO next week.
The Caley Jags moved to the brink of exiting administration earlier today as Alan Savage was named the preferred bidder to take over the club, 24 hours ahead of the deadline he set when publicly announcing his offer two weeks ago.
Agreements have been made regarding the land and the loans from former directors, but one of Savage’s conditions was that 100 per cent of the shares would be transferred to his new company, FC Inverness.
Major shareholders have agreed to return their shares to the club in order to facilitate this deal, but BDO will be contacting all shareholders next week in a bid to secure a successful, Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that would allow Caley Thistle to officially exit administration.
Christie, himself a shareholder in the club alongside his brother, has now asked people to unite behind Savage’s bid and ensure that the club can exit administration as quickly as possible.
“People might say that Alan’s offer was quite demanding, but I can see the reasoning behind it and I agree with it – the need for clarity at this football club,” Christie said.
“The complexities of this football club has stymied the sale at times, and has made interested parties become disinterested. Clarity has been needed for a long time, and for various reasons – I could go back to the year 2000 when our financial predicament started.
“All shareholders out there – myself and my brother included – need to back this to the hilt now. Never mind about putting obstacles in the way as some people are very good at doing, we need to find ways of getting this through as soon as possible.
“We need everybody to come together, that is absolutely vital. We can’t have one or two disinterested parties trying to be awkward. Alan Savage will not accept that, it’s not his way of working, and all you will be doing is causing the club a problem.
“The major shareholders, who are businessmen and have put a lot of money into this club, have stepped aside to let this happen, so surely all the other shareholders can support it.
“At the moment, it’s the only game in town, so we need to support it and then we need to kick on.
“Every week that passes makes our recruitment for next season more difficult, so the sooner we can get out of administration and get all the paperwork sorted, the better it will be when we start playing football next season.”
Christie was in the room for the press conference where Savage was announced as BDO’s preferred bidder, and admitted his reaction was one of relief.
He pointed to little things, like the return of former chairman Dougie MacGillivray to the Caledonian Stadium for just the second time in the last couple of decades, as a sign that there was a positive future ahead for the club.
“I think what has shone through is that everybody wants the football club to survive, which was the main thing, and credit to the guys.
“It was really positive today, and I take my hat off to the major shareholders for playing ball, I really do. I don’t give plaudits easily, but I really do take my hat off to them because it can’t be easy for them. Alan has said they will be welcomed back, and I sincerely hope they all come back to the club.
“It was great to see Dougie MacGillivray, who did a lot to get this stadium built and get us up and running in 1994 and 1995. He was my first chairman when I played, and he hasn’t been back a lot for various reasons, but it would be great to see Dougie and his son Ian back on a regular basis.
“These are the people we need to support the club. Dare I say it, imagine Dougie coming back here and taking naming rights to the stadium, calling it the Weldex Stadium? That would be absolutely fantastic.
“I actually felt quite buzzing coming out of the press conference, and that’s not me, I’m normally quite level-headed.
“The thought of the club not existing just didn’t bear thinking about, because we have got so much to offer the community.
“We’ve shown that over the last 30 years - we have spoiled Inverness rotten. Please don’t underestimate that, because it’s unquestionable.
“It would have been easy for Alan to turn his back on the club, but he didn’t. Now, there is still a lot of hard work to be done. I will feel a lot better when the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.
“I’ve worked at Caley Thistle since day one, and you are always apprehensive, but today went a long way to dissipating that apprehension.”