Inverness Caley Thistle’s former chairman Alan Savage says Scot Gardiner’s legal action has opened up a Pandora’s Box investigation into links between football club and concert company
Inverness Caledonian Thistle advisor Alan Savage says legal action pursued by former chief executive officer Scot Gardiner has opened a Pandora’s Box at the club.
Sherriff Court officers visited the Caledonian Stadium at the end of last week over £70,000 that Gardiner believes he is owed by the club - £50,000 of which was through the Caley Thistle concert company and £20,000 being made up of loans to the club.
The Caley Jags now have three weeks to formally respond, with Savage planning to dispute that claim.
As part of the process to provide evidence, ICT will this week enlist lawyers – paid for by Savage – to go through communications between the football club and the Caley Thistle concert company, which is at the heart of the claim.
They will also have access to bank statements to track what money went where, with Savage promising to get to the bottom of the situation.
“There is a forensic search of the emails being carried out across all aspects of the concerts being done,” he said.
“It may be that the club were carrying out work for the concert company, and Gardiner was getting paid by the club whilst doing work for the concert company.
“I don’t know the legalities of that, but why should the club pay for the concert company? It doesn’t make sense whatsoever. The club wasn’t a shareholder in the concert company, but evidently it lost about £950,000 that wasn’t reported with the liquidator.
“Gardiner has opened a Pandora’s Box, there are a load of implications of it, and we will go through the detail meticulously to put up a robust defence.
“The bank statements will tell all. We’ve got a set of statements from the club and the concert company during that period, and between the two we will see which financial transactions were crossed, if any. We’ll be able to get a good look at this assertion that he’s owed money.
“The ball is then in his court. He’s got to produce evidence that shows he has loaned money to the club and what the agreement was, and then we’ll have to reply, so this could take months and months.”
While there may not be a quick resolution to the dispute with Gardiner, Savage is hoping an audit of the club’s 2023/24 finances will be completed slightly sooner, within six to eight weeks.
That will allow ICT to provide a clearer financial picture to potential investors, but again that is not without complications.
Fundraising efforts are currently ongoing, with the Caley Jags being given £1000 just last Saturday for example, but Savage expects ICT will need £1.6 million to get to the end of the 2025/26 season, and a decision on the long-running battery farm saga is only expected before Christmas.
Since Savage came on board to battle against the tide, some have looked to recoup money they feel they are owed, with former manager and sporting director John Robertson just one example as he is looking for £7000 in redundancy pay from when he was on sick leave.
Caley Thistle’s plight will be featured soon on the BBC show A View From The Terrace, which Savage hopes will bring them to the attention of potential investors, and he has promised to be open and transparent with supporters too about the outcome of the audit.
“We should have a good indication of where we are by Christmas,” Savage added.
“It won’t happen overnight, it’s up to us to speak to people and get more interest as people realise what state we’re in – but they can do something about it by putting their hands in their pockets.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be optimistic about this, Inverness is a great city that needs a great football club.
“We also need Ross Morrison, David Cameron and Allan Munro to commit to where we are on the battery farm, because we need to know where we stand.
“The 2023/24 season audit is under way, and that will give a clear picture of the club’s true financial position.
“I don’t think it’s going to get better because there are still things crawling out of the woodwork all the time, but off the back of that we’ll be able to give a potential buyer the due diligence answers they would want.
“I will make sure that audit is absolutely forensic and goes into everything that’s been going on at the club and the battery farms and concert companies so that there are no legacy issues that could affect a deal.
“In the season ending in 2023, the accounts showed that the club lost £1.7 million. It beggars belief. I don’t know what happened, but we’ll get to the bottom of that.
“We have to explain to the fans and stakeholders what happened. You can’t just move on, people want to know why.
“It’s important that we communicate, because otherwise they’re only getting half the story. People want to know, even on a macro level, who was responsible for what and why.”