Gardiner: ICT want to play on
SCOT Gardiner insists Inverness Caley Thistle are desperate for the campaign to continue – because they want the chance to win promotion back to the Premiership that they were denied last season.
The Highlanders chief executive has criticised the SFA for ‘misrepresenting’ their views on suspending the Championship after they found themselves at the centre of a row over the weekend.
Manager John Robertson’s questioning of the motivation for continuing the second-tier in the face of growing Covid-19 safety concerns led to SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell writing to all Championship clubs to ask if they wanted to call a temporary halt to the fixture list. But Gardiner has made it clear Robertson’s ‘ruminating’ was not the club’s official stance and they are fully behind the decision to play on.
Gardiner said: “Last year we were misrepresented and they were saying we were doing it for one side, and this time we’re misrepresented and it looks like we’re doing it for another side.
“Really, all we wanted to do was not have Inverness’ name taken in vain.
“I have no problem, I don’t think any club will ever have a problem, with Ian or anyone else calling us and saying, ‘we read this, are you guys fully on board?’.
“We were denied the chance last year to get promoted. We were in second place and it wasn’t anyone’s fault, we were just denied that chance.
“We are desperate to get promoted this year. We’ve got a lot of games in hand but if we win them we’re right back in the mix.
“The main thing that got us, and why it caused us such anxiety, was because we were being represented as not wanting the game to go ahead, as opposed to the other nine clubs, potentially. That’s not fair on Inverness.”
He told the BBC: “We’re happy for the League or the SFA to call us, that’s what we need more of. Pick up the phone, give us a quick call, we’re always available and we can say, ‘we’re fine’.”