Stewart Regan’s job is in serious peril this evening, as Celtic react furiously to the scheduling of the two international friendlies which the SFA has organised for the end of the season.
The games have been widely criticised on social media, and Brendan Rodgers and Chris Davies have made their anger about it plain. Celtic players have announced that they will take the matter to the player’s union. The club is united on this one; those games are a scandal.
The outrage over this has come at an awful time for the governing bodies. They are already reeling under criticism of the “colt teams” proposal – for the record I think it’s a ridiculous idea, absolutely ridiculous, with no redeeming merits whatsoever – with several teams ready to vote against it, and because of the abject failure of the national association in trying to appoint a head coach.
Regan already feels under pressure. He has refused to resign – that was never on the cards – but he does accept that he is answerable to his board. And the board, in turn, is answerable to the clubs. And they are answerable to the fans.
This is why the colts idea looks like it might be kicked into the long grass; clubs who have gone to their supporters over this have found reactions bordering on fury.
The bribe these clubs are being offered – allegedly by Celtic and Sevco both, a grubby element to that plan which leaves more than just a bad taste in your mouth – will in no way cover the number of fans who are talking about boycotting their own clubs if this low scam ever comes to pass.
The SFA board is going to be under massive pressure to put this guy’s tenure under the spotlight, and now the most powerful club in the land is furious with the way they and their players have been overlooked or just ignored as Regan makes a money grab.
The anger is radiating out of Celtic Park, and it has become abundantly clear that the CEO has nothing but contempt for everyone else in the game. That should bring him swiftly to the point of no return.
I have refused to comment – except in oblique references – about Celtic’s total failure to challenge Regan more openly over his refusal to grant us an inquiry into what was going on at Ibrox and Hampden during and after the EBT era. His stonewalling would have pissed off a lot of people inside our club. Now circumstances have conspired to put the CEO in a position from which he may not survive.
There will never be a better chance to “settle all family business”, as Michael Corleone puts it in a famous scene from The Godfather.
Regan is a disgrace to Scottish football.
The clubs cannot allow this man to stay in post and ride roughshod over their wishes and those of the fans. He is sitting on a volcano over there and he should welcome a vote which removes him from office over a simple failure to appoint a new boss. It is a better end than he deserves, one where he is removed because of lies and corruption and the scandals in which we all know he has played an active role.
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