Mediasnub lands Caley in hot water with the SFA
INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle could find themselves censured by the SFA compliance officer, Tony McGlennan, after failing to fulfil their contractual media obligations ahead of this afternoon’s William Hill Scottish Cup Final.
The Highland side, who have based themselves in Edinburgh this week in preparation for today’s meeting against Falkirk, snubbed the traditional pre-match press briefing where they were contracted to present the manager, John Hughes, and club captain, Graeme Shinnie, ahead of the game.
SFA stipulations request the presence of both on the eve of the game to promote it and to meet the demands of the Cup sponsor.
“Inverness instead sent assistant manager Russell Latapy and Richie Foran in place of Hughes and Shinnie.
Both Latapy and Foran offered their apologies on behalf of the club.
“The manager is taking the team in preparation for the cup final. We wanted to do some final preparations so the manager is doing it,” said Latapy.
“We discussed the lastminute preparations on Thursday and there were some extra bits and bobs we wanted to do and felt John should do.
“We apologise but in our mind getting our players to focus on the Scottish Cup final is most important and that is what the manager is doing — and rightly so.”
The apology is unlikely to be well received by either the SFA or William Hill.
A source close to the cup sponsors said: “It is very disrespectful, both to us and to the SFA.”
Hughes was named as the Manager of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers’ on Sunday evening and his failure to appear for the press conference will almost inevitably result in a fine for the Highland club, who are appearing in their first Scottish Cup Final.
An SFA statement read: “The situation is disappointing since both clubs have contributed to the build-up ahead of the season’s showpiece event. Nei- ther the SFA nor William Hill was advised by the club that they would be unable to fulfil the Sponsorship and Broadcasting Matters, as defined within section 7.1 in early course.
“We will be writing to Inverness Caledonian Thistle to remind them of their media obligations.
“The SFA considers this situation to be disrespectful to the competition.”