INVERNESS, Scotland — Porn is porn and football is football, and never the twain shall meet, at least where the Inverness Caledonian Thistle football club’s fans are concerned.Since a report early last week that Neil MacGregor is one of several individuals offering to invest millions of pounds in the club, things have gotten a bit heated in Scotland. MacGregor owns a company that provides clients with male and female escorts, dancers, and strippers. He also owns a Web design company, and a security company that claims to have provided bodyguards for celebrities.
The club’s fans aren’t clamoring for the 10 million pounds MacGregor has offered to build a new training facility and a covered stadium in exchange for control of the ICT. In fact, they’ve called the whole idea “ludicrous.”
“I remember this guy from his Elgin bid. He is in cloud cuckoo land,” one fan wrote on the club’s online message board, referring to MacGregor’s failed mid-2007 bid to win sole ownership of the Elgin City Football Club for £600,000 plus new facilities.
“I think we can safely say that the majority of fans don’t want him, and probably his ‘plans’ for ICT are just as ludicrous as his plans for Elgin were,” another wrote. “Let’s not allow this to drag on.”
MacGregor’s credibility is as much to blame for the rejection as his line of work. Even Les Kidger, chairman of the ICT Supporters Trust, has said although investment of a large sum of money would be welcome, he doesn’t believe a single owner like MacGregor could provide the stability the club or its supporting community needs. Others have called the plans “out of touch with reality.”
Long-time ICT fan and member of parliament David Stewart said the community maintains strong support for the team’s current management.
“I’ve seen Mr. MacGregor’s name pop up in the past at various other clubs and there does not seem to be any credibility or substance to his claims,” he told The Inverness Courier. “Whilst on the one hand it would be naïve to ignore new sources of funding to help grow and develop the club, I personally would oppose any takeover approach.”
MacGregor begs to disagree. He called the fans’ reaction to his business interests “small-minded” and short-sighted and said told The Inverness Courier such responses made him feel ashamed to be Scottish.
“It does not matter what I do for a living,” MacGregor told The Courier. “If that’s the attitude, then stuff them. They are never going to make anything of the club. They are hanging on by their teeth and nails.”
The club’s board of directors has not rejected the proposal outright. According to The Courier, it is running background checks and seeking more details before making a decision.
