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Celtic’s Decision Not To Take Live Questions At The Virtual AGM Is Gutless And Disgraceful.

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For a club that prides itself on being well run, Celtic’s directors do not enjoy scrutiny as to how they go about their business.

For a club that likes to preach the highest standards of transparency, we still don’t know if the club has anything approaching a medium to long term plan because nobody at Celtic Park thinks we’re entitled to know that sort of thing.

The coming AGM was a brilliant opportunity for the club to open up the floor to a greater selection of fans and interested parties than ever before.

It was a chance for people who’ve never had a chance to quiz our directors to do so, and it was a chance for the kind of rigorous questioning which the board has never had to face – but should have to face all the time.

And scandalously, in a cowardly move which brings discredit on all involved, they’ve decided that this year’s AGM will in fact be what I feared it was going to be, a more controlled environment than ever before with shareholders not allowed the traditional Q&A.

That is shameful from Celtic, absolutely shameful, and can only add to the impression that our club really does lack for leadership or vision.

The club wants written questions only.

I suspect they’ll pick what slippery politicians call “a representative sample.”

What it actually comes down to is that they’ll pick the questions on a given subject which don’t have a hard edge and throw softballs at themselves for the duration of the meeting.

At long last, this is the kind of AGM they’ve always wanted … and I know that for a fact because I’ve heard one high-level individual at Celtic mourn that our support is not as pliable and easy to bend as the one at Ibrox. This is their perfect scenario here, one where they have total control.

In short, this whole thing is a fraud, nothing more than a mutual back-slapping exercise from people who have been guilty of gross mismanagement in a number of critical areas.

I have written a lengthy piece on the eight issues which needed to be debated at this year’s virtual session, and we will be lucky to see two of them discussed.

For a board that will doubtless tell us they did everything right, they sure do act a lot of the time like one that’s terrified to face the supporters … or has contempt for them.

They would already be under momentous pressure if there were fans in the stands … now they are snatching the right of individual shareholders to question them properly at the club’s annual general meeting.

I am appalled by the gutless and cynical nature of what the Celtic board has done today with this announcement.

These men never stick their necks out or their heads up when this club is being buffered by the waves of stormy seas … perhaps I should have known that they wouldn’t do it here and now. That they wouldn’t dare face hard questions.

If they want a point of comparison, this is the kind of shabby stroke they’d have pulled at Ibrox a few years back, an act of utter cowardice and shamelessness.

What a disgraceful decision this is, a retreat into the bunker when an opportunity was here for a more democratic meeting than we’ve ever had before. I should have known they would choose this spineless path of least resistance for themselves.

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