Caley Thistle scored a pre-Scottish Cup final own goal last night as they were accused of being disrespectful to the national cup competition and its sponsor by the Scottish Football Association.
The Highlanders’ build-up to the finale to the Scottish football season soured in spectacular fashion yesterday when manager John Hughes and captain Graeme Shinnie failed to appear for the pre-match press conference with the national media at Hampden Park.
The Highlanders, instead, sent assistant manager Russell Latapy and club captain Richie Foran, who has missed the entire season due to injury, in their place but failed to inform the SFA of their intentions.
The absence of Hughes and Shinnie from the conference left the SFA, which granted a request of Caley Jags and their cup final opponents Falkirk to reduce prices for today’s match, in the embarrassing situ-
ation of having to explain why the pair had failed to appear.
The bewilderment within the association quickly turned to anger, with the SFA turning its ire on Inverness.
Daryl Broadfoot, SFA head of communications and corporate affairs, said: “The SFA and the sponsor of the Scottish Cup, William Hill, are extremely disappointed by the failure by Caley Thistle to present their manager, John Hughes, and captain, Graeme Shinnie, at the traditional manager and captain’s media conference at Hampden Park today.
“This situation is especially disappointing since both clubs have contributed greatly to the build-up ahead of the season’s showpiece event.
“Neither 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 of the cup competition rules.
“The SFA and William Hill would like to apologise to the assembled media in attendance today for the unacceptable situation that arose, without any prior warning from the club.
“We will be writing to Caley Thistle to remind them of their media obligations as per section 7.1. The SFA informs participating clubs of their media and sponsorship obligations prior to each round and considers today’s situation to be disrespectful to the competition and to one of Scottish football’s most valued sponsors.”
The shock turn of events has sullied what has been a positive build-up to the biggest game in the club’s history.
Caley Jags club officials declined to comment when contacted by the Press and Journal yesterday.