James Stephen addresses the media for the first time after BDO were appointed as administrators at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
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00:00So, given the cash deficit, we've had to take some fairly unfortunate decisions over the last 24 hours.
00:06As people are aware, the fee management team were made redundant yesterday,
00:10and this morning we've made four further players redundant,
00:14and we've had one lone player return to his parent club.
00:18We'll put an announcement on the club website as to who those players are after this conference,
00:23and going forward we've asked Scott Kellacher and Billy Mackay,
00:28who obviously have a lot of affinity with the club, have been around for a long time.
00:31We've asked them to step up to take first team in conjunction with Charlie Christie and the academy guys.
00:38They are very enthusiastic, keen to do it, and it's a great challenge for them to take the club forward.
00:45In terms of the funding position, clearly we still have issues around funding.
00:52With me is Alan Savage, who's clearly been bankrolling the club effectively,
00:57in the period prior to my appointment.
00:59Alan has very kindly agreed to assist with the administration funding,
01:03and we've asked Alan to come back on the board with a view to seeing where we can increase revenues.
01:09Now that's not, unfortunately, a bottomless pit of money.
01:13It's given us a period of stability to go forward,
01:16but we are looking to the local community to rally around the club and support us as much as we can.
01:22Every penny we can raise is helpful to the club,
01:25and what I would stress is every penny that we raise will be used in the trading expenses of the club,
01:31so every penny that comes in will be used to keep the club going.
01:34So where that leaves us, as I say, we've got a little bit of stability going forward.
01:39It's allowed me now to move forward with the sale process, which has already started,
01:43with the key objective to exit through a company voluntary arrangement,
01:46which is the way that football clubs come out of this scenario and keep their licence.
01:51We've been speaking regularly with the football authorities,
01:54and again, having been in this situation before,
01:57as always they've been extremely helpful in assisting us with what we're trying to do.
02:01Fraser Wishart from the PFA very kindly came up today to assist players that were sadly being made redundant.
02:07So, as I say, we've got a period of stability now.
02:11What I'm not going to do is hold press conferences for press conferences' sake.
02:16We now want to just concentrate, kind of be left alone to get on with running the football club,
02:21putting some points on the board,
02:23and then once we have something tangible to tell you, then we'll do so.
02:26There's going to be a little bit of a lull at this particular point in time,
02:29whilst we start pushing forward with the sale process.
02:31But rest assured, when we do have something to say, we will communicate with the press
02:35and release what we're able to release.
02:38That's all I really have to say at the minute.
02:41If there are some questions, I'm happy to take some limited questions.
02:45You talked about some players being made redundant.
02:48Are there plans for club staff to be...
02:51At the minute, the club non-playing staff remains intact, and that is the hope that that will continue.
02:57We may do some tweaking around hours that people are working and slightly changing up different roles,
03:02but at the minute, we're not carrying a huge infrastructure of staff,
03:06so we're comfortable as to where we are at the minute.
03:09You also mentioned that takeover process has begun at least.
03:14How quickly do you anticipate that moving?
03:17We'd like to move it as quickly as we possibly can, clearly.
03:21It just depends on people coming forward to express an interest.
03:24They'll need to do their due diligence, but what we'll do is we'll set up a data room for people to access,
03:28and then we'll just keep moving it forward as quickly as we can.
03:31We've already had three expressions of interest, so we're obviously following up on that.
03:36And then we've got what we call a teaser that's going to go out to interested parties to say,
03:40if you want to engage with us, then please do so.
03:43Just use this forum to encourage people, if you have got an interest in the club, please do reach out to us.