Full name | Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | Caley Thistle Caley Jags The Pride of the Highlands |
Founded | August 1994 as Caledonian Thistle Football Club |
Ground | Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness |
Capacity | 7,750 (seated) |
Chairman | Willie Finlayson |
Manager | John Robertson |
League | Scottish Championship |
2016–17 | Scottish Premiership, 12th (relegated) |
Website | Club home page |
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland, which plays in the Scottish Championship.
Caledonian Thistle F.C. were formed in August 1994 by the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, both members of the Highland Football League. The new club was formed with a view to applying for one of the two vacancies in the Scottish Football League, created when the league restructured in 1994 to four divisions of ten teams each. They were successful and were elected to the Scottish Third Division along with Highland derby rivals Ross County. The club's name was amended to Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. in 1996 at the request of Inverness District Council.
The club first came to national prominence after their Scottish Cup victories over Celtic in 2000 and 2003: winning 3–1 at Celtic Park, resulting in the headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious" in The Sun which is now framed in the foyer of Caledonian Stadium, and 1–0. Inverness also knocked other SPL teams out of cup competitions, including Motherwell and Hearts. Over the first ten years of their existence the club had been responsible for a total of 12 'shocks' and as a result had gained themselves a reputation as being "giant killers". On 25 February 2007, Inverness's run of cup victories over Celtic came to an end following two goals in the last two minutes of their fifth round tie at Caledonian Stadium. Having led 1–0 for the majority of the game thanks to a Graham Bayne goal, Steven Pressley equalised before Kenny Miller netted the winner in stoppage time. However, another victory against Celtic occurred on 16 December 2007, this time in the league, when the team came from being 2–0 down to win 3–2, with goals scored by John Rankin, David Proctor and Don Cowie.