ICT to train 135 miles away in Fife as part of club restructure

Inverness will use the home of League One rivals Kelty Hearts as their new training base.

Published 24th May 2024

Inverness have announced an agreement to use the home ground of new League One rivals Kelty Hearts as their training base in a move they feel gives them "the best possible chance to attract the highest quality players to the club".

The Highland-based outfit - who have just been relegated from the Championship - explained that their geographic location has become a significant impediment to being able to recruit from Scotland's central belt.

Although they will train at New Central Park Stadium in Fife - around 135 miles away from the Caledonian Stadium - the club stressed that "Inverness is and will always be our home" and also pointed out that they did not envisage being in the same division as Kelty when the plan was first mooted.

"This creative partnership will mean that we will hire their excellent facilities which include a 3G pitch, on-site grass pitches and offices for our coaching staff, as our training base during the week starting from this coming pre-season in June," read a statement from Inverness.

"The last few years have seen the geographic challenges in getting players to move to the Highlands become ever harder for a number of reasons.

"Caledonian Stadium will always be our home, but other factors in Scottish football have changed and where we train should not be an impediment to the quality of the players we can attract to Caley Thistle, or to our potential to progress.

"The commercial success of the city of Inverness both as a tourist destination and a place to live, has led to very high prices for the accommodation we require to house players.

"In addition to these high costs which our competitors do not carry, the extremely limited housing stock in Inverness continues to be both a challenge and a huge factor working against us.

"Increased playing budgets in and around the central belt has meant that on many occasions, even when we have offered players more favourable terms than our competitors, sometimes even agreed deals, we have then been told that the player has changed his mind due to challenges relocating their families.

"Support structures in and around the families of players may all be in and around the central belt, partners will have jobs where they live and moving kids schools to the Highlands and moving home itself can just be seen as impractical for a one or two-year contract.

"It makes it particularly challenging for us to sign senior players, a category which through no fault of our budget, or of previous ICT Managers, we have struggled to attract in the last few seasons.

"Similarly, our location means that we miss out on the opportunity of signing promising players from the larger clubs in Scotland, on loan or otherwise."

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