Council chiefs have come under attack for revealing there were no plans to put on a civic dinner for Scottish Cup winning heroes Inverness Caley Thistle.
Veteran member Norrie Donald is fuming that the “biggest ever success” in the the Highland capital’s sporting history did not enjoy the same privileges afforded to shinty players and curlers – or even the defeated cup rivals.
While the victors were entertained privately at their own stadium, the runners-up Falkirk FC were being lauded by their local council with a slap-up feast in their town’s chateau-style mansion, Callander House.
However, when Mr Donald asked if a similar honour could be lavished on the Highland capital’s returning heroes yesterday, he was told by Provost Alex Graham that the local authority had already funded a lunch at the ICT stadium for players, wives and officials.
Last night council spokesman David Haas, Inverness city manager, said there were no plans for a further celebration to mark the victory.
Mr Donald said it was a poor way to reward the club.
“It was a magnificent achievement considering the number of teams that compete in the competition,” he said.
“I suggested to the provost that we should host a proper civic event, only to be told we had done something on the day after the game.
“But that was a public event and I don’t think a Sunday is the day for a civic event, anyway.
“This is something we should be doing. We’ve done something similar for curling, for shinty. We had a shinty team over from Ireland and held a dinner.
“This is a bigger sporting event than anything before for Inverness. I was highly displeased with his response.”
Mr Graham, who was at Hampden for the final, stressed that any proposal to mark the ICT victory would still be considered.
He said he told Mr Donald that the council had already invested money and had contributed to the private lunch on the day the players showed off the trophy in a giant public party attended by 5,000 fans at the city’s Northern Meeting Park.
He added: “The council has provided exceptional support to Caley Thistle including £8,000 from the Inverness Common Good Fund to help youngsters get to the match, and free use of a pop-up shop in the Victorian Market to promote club merchandise.
“The council also paid £2,000 for the staging and the tent at the Northern Meeting Park to help the celebrations along.
“We’ve also provided quite a lot of informal support, so I think the council has done very well in terms of supporting them and helping with the celebrations afterwards.
“I think if there’s anything specific Norrie feels the council should be doing then he should come forward with a formal proposal.”
Council convener Jimmy Gray agreed with Mr Donald that a suitable civic function would be appropriate.
However, he added that the wisdom prior to the final was that no-one wanted to be seen as prejudging the result and that staging a civic Town House event now would be a logistical nightmare.
He said: “The big difficulty is finding a suitable time for everyone involved. You couldn’t organise it in advance of Sunday because you couldn’t be seen to be overtly planning for a victory before kicking a ball.
“The players are now on holidays. But, now they’re going to be in Europe, there are going to be a number of potential opportunities to celebrate if they’re on board with that.”
Mr Haas said there were no plans for a civic dinner at present but added: “We’ve fully engaged with the club since the amazing semi-final triumph over Celtic.
“We worked with them to facilitate promotional activity right across the city, from decorating the Flora MacDonald statue up at the court to providing them with a shop in the market and the reception at the Northern Meeting Park that allowed the people to get close to their heroes.
“Any future event that may be held would be for the councillors to decide.”