Highland League outfit Clachnacuddin where last night forced into adminstration following a hike in its debt repayments that would make a Mafia loanshark blush.
The Inverness club are facing a £46k debt to the Common Good Fund over the lease for its Grant Street Park ground. The club had outlined plans to sell its social club to a property developer (a sale that would wipe out the clubs debts to the council, as well as to the Royal Bank of Scotland) but for whatever reason, The Highland Council felt that the only way to recover the debt was to increase the monthly repayments from £400 to £3,800, a move that would clear the debt in 12 months.
Given the perilous financial situation at the club, Clachnacuddin directors where forced to put the club into administration. They’ll continue to play its fixtures until a way out of administration can be found, but given the current economic climate, finding the funds to secure the future of Highland League football in the town will be a tough job.
Clachnacuddin are founder members of the Highland League and are the divisions most successful side, having won the title on 18 occasions, with their most recent win coming in 2004. The side, managed by Iain Polworth, are currently in 13th place.
The Common Good Fund, to which the club owes debt in question, is essentially an endownment established through gifts of land and property from institutions and individuals with the intent on “creating a community chest for the future”. Established some 800 years ago, money from the fund has been used to finance public executions (including the cost of the rope). More modern uses include the installation of CCTV cameras and the installation of the Christmas lights in the town.
The use of moneys from the Fund – the value of which was approximately £7m according to the latest figures available in 2006 – has not been without controversy. The £250,000 paid out to stage a torchlight procession and fireworks display to mark the end of the Highland Year of Culture caused uproar in the town.
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Tags: Clachnacuddin, Common Good Fund, Highland League, Inverness
