Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Heart of Midlothian v Celtic - Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain - May 7, 2023 Celtic fans celebrate in the stands after winning the Scottish Premiership REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
On Sunday, after the game, there was what some people online have described as an ugly encounter outside the stadium in Paisley, where Celtic had just won 3-0 to go back to the top of the league, continue our 100% start to the season, and confirm us as the team to beat in this title race.
The incident involved a handful of fans having an animated discussion with Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell.
In the aftermath, there was some discussion online and elsewhere as to whether this was appropriate. A lot of people said it was embarrassing; others said it was absolutely shocking. So, it’s not a subject without emotion.
It’s not a subject on which we’re all going to agree, or one where we’re even going to see eye to eye.
But I think as long as people kept it verbal, what happened this weekend is perfectly legitimate. It is entirely reasonable for fans to express their views in whatever manner they like, provided it stays within the confines of what is legal and socially acceptable.
Nothing threatening. Nothing gross, like spitting at people.
I don’t believe that supporters expressing their frustration directly to a person they believe is the cause of that frustration is anything other than fair game.
And before the accusation even surfaces, let me confront it head-on: I’m not speaking in code here.
This isn’t a nod and wink to the wise or unwise alike; you don’t need to keep it civil, but you damned well better keep it legit, because anything else and you’re acting selfishly, in your own interests, and you’re a piece of shit who doesn’t represent anybody but yourself.
I have written here about this club’s perception problem and the immense toxicity it generates; that’s an example of it, and the club would do better to combat that perception problem than moaning about it.
It exists. It’s a reality, and it is a reality they had better start coming to grips with before this becomes more commonplace.
Listen, this is not some Fortune 500, no matter what our directors believe. This is a football club, a community institution, and it belongs to the supporters. It does not belong to a group of fat white men sitting in the boardroom, drinking tea and eating biscuits on the club’s account.
Celtic belongs to the fans, and especially these days it is ever more difficult for fans to actually meet the decision-makers face to face and get their points across. Even at a club like this one, where there is a certain amount of give and take between the supporters and the club and where fan media gets invited to press conferences and such, there are still too many closed doors and too much keeping people at arm’s length.
The perception many people have – and I agree with them – is that the people in that boardroom seem to believe that supporters aren’t entitled to answers. They believe they should be immune from criticism. And their paltry defence that they have an annual general meeting doesn’t wash at all because fans who ask questions at the AGM are often treated with unbelievable contempt.
As I will make clear later in a lengthy article about the board and in relation to Lawwell’s statement at the last AGM, when he was quizzed about the remuneration of directors, this is not the only case where a fan who has asked a legitimate question was treated as if he were a moron for ever having dared to. This is no longer tenable, and it never really was.
The club belongs to the fans, and the fans deserve to have their say. And because the fans pay their money, and because that money funds the whole shebang, they are entitled to express their views in any way they please, as long as it stays on the right side of the law.
If people are finding that tough to deal with, they have choices, and one of those choices is that they can leave. They can go and get jobs in companies and corporations where the customers don’t even know their names and where they don’t have to give a damn.
But this is a football club, and fans are stakeholders whether these people like that or not, and as stakeholders they are entitled to voice their views, even in anger.
This is the direct consequence of years of treating supporters like barely tolerated fools who don’t know any better, who don’t deserve to have a voice – people whose money they take without allowing them any say in how it is spent or what the direction of the club is. This is what happens when managers have to beg for what they need and still get ignored, whilst the club sits on a huge surplus of cash and is on the brink of asking fans for more.
I am only surprised there haven’t been more incidents like it, because I think this board gets an easy ride and their cards should have been marked for them after the January window, which looked farcical and ludicrous – at least until the shambles of this one.
Opportunities for the fans as a body to make their feelings clear inside stadiums have been lost, and I understand that towards the end of last season the focus was entirely on supporting the team and getting them over that line, and I cannot but be glad that it succeeded.
Still, I do think that there ought to have been some clear message sent to the directors in a way no-one could ignore, as much as they might have wanted to.
Is that sort of protest fair? In my view, it’s completely fair.
What these guys are doing is no longer strategy, if it ever was. It’s no longer just adherence to policy; it’s zealotry. And if you’re not willing to bend to accommodate other points of view, you’re going to find those points of view expressed in ways you don’t like and might not be ready for.
And even if it’s unfair, as I’ve said here on multiple occasions, that could not matter less. This is what people feel now, this is what people believe, and when that view has hardened the way it has here, you’ve got options for dealing with it.
Ignoring it is one of those options, but that will make it worse instead of better and create a whole raft of new issues.
The other way is to try and change minds, and the most obvious way to do that is to show a little flex and change the policy.
If they’re not willing to adapt and grow, then hard times will soon be at hand, because fans know what they’re watching now, and this window has made that ever clearer to them. A lot of them are just not prepared to go along quietly any longer, and in my view, that’s been coming, and it’s not before time.
Better for everyone if Low ball just left of his own accord, but I fear getting him to go will be as difficult as removing a tapeworm, and I use that metaphor deliberately.
The PLC belongs to the share holders, it is run, by law, for the share holders benefit, the only people who have any rights or say, are the share holders, the more shares you own the more say you have.
The fans are the PLC’s customers, albeit with many small share holders also.
The only say the fans have really have is the say in where they spend their money.
While there’s a long line of fans willing to pay the share holders then they execs will continue to dismiss the fans opinions and feelings.
I should add, they have done a very good job at running the PLC and have made a lot of money for the major share holders by putting a successful team on the park and running the club in a sensible prudent fashion.
Careful what you wish for.
I know exactly what I wish for. Get the leeches out.
If you think “they” put the successful team on the park I suggest you think that over a bit. I have a piece on that for later.
Be careful what YOU wish for.
Ah yes. The old “careful what you wish for” cliche has reared its head again.
The hun fans used it ad nauseam a few years ago but much good it did them.
It was then taken up extensively by board apologists ( and plants ?) on CQN and comes up there from time to time usually by people whose blog names end in two consecutive numbers.
A classic example of lazy thinking.
No matter how emotionally invested I am in the club, Mr. Smith is right, and I am not yet a shareholder.
Just for good measure, I won’t be making any wishes.
Celtic does make a lot of money, or so I read. But there is opportunity for Celtic to grow the brand and make more.
You are correct in your analysis of a normal business, Is a football club a normal business?
You would probably say yes, I would probably say not really. Any sensible company does not insult their customers, just ask Gerard Ratner how that ends.
You and the board treating the fans as only customers is a dangerous game, most of these so called customers come from generations of families that have helped finance and support the club since its inception. No company or individual in the entertainment World would dare refuse to communicate and respect their fans or customers.
The Celtic Board talk about “The Celtic Family” when it suits them, but dismisses them disdainfully, as just customers whenever the supporters want to have a family discussion. Without the fans Football is nothing, big Jock new who were the most important people to any Football club. Of course there is a balance to be struck between the shareholders and the supporters,to dismiss the supporters as just customers is a dangerous game for any Professional Football Club.
Mr Smith,you state that the board have put a successful team on the park,was that not the manager that achieved that,and the success you talk about is in a piss poor 3rd rate league,where most of the teams in it wouldn’t survive I the English 1st or 2nd division,and there is the yearly debacle in Europe where we get trounced every year because these leeches on the board won’t give the manager the funds to equip the team better for Europe,nah they’d rather keep all the money in the bank and give themselves massive bonuses and to hell with the team.The way the board have operated in this transfer window I can see more Euro skelpings in sight ,so yes let’s thank liewell and the board NOT!!!!
Agent Smith, the PLC only exists because of the team and its success on the park. The team only exists because of the fans and their undying backing of the team.
Put it another way. If there was no PLC would there still be a team and fans? I think we all know the answer to that one!
Ergo the fans/support are the most important element in the equation and the must be realised by the faceless PLC. If not there is a danger this club (which i barely recognise now) will go cannibalistic and eat itself from within. Celtic will be the only entity that defeats Celtic.
Michael Nicholson has been the CEO for three years and I can’t remember him speaking.
A pity some fans had to call out Lawell on Sunday as there is very limited access to communicate with the club in other ways.
Be great if the CEO or chairman could appear on one of the many Celtic programmes like Acsom for example to advise on future strategy and head of recruitment plans.
The club is controlled by one individual , Desmond and until he is removed nothing will change.
The club needs gutted from top to bottom.
The AGM’s are nothin more than an obligatory inconvenience tae this board. As far as confrontation goes, of course ye have tae exercise caution, tho it stands tae reason, that if people are shown the respect they deserve, then in all likelihood, they’ll be shown respect in return. This board have created their own situation. They have and still do, show nothin but utter contempt and disregard, towards the very people who have done the most in putting the club ( and them) financially where they are. Imo, the Celtic support have shown real restraint in all this, which so far is more than that lot deserve. What they were confronted with on Sunday, was only the beginnin, if they don’t provide in the next 3 days. And I for one, wouldn’t condemn it one bit.
Great to see that on Sunday, and btw, he is an arsehole.
@ roonsa. Agree 100%.
The abuse was given to Mr Lawell before the game he was sworn at and called an arsehole and told to spend money excuse me we had just spent £9 million on Idah there is no way this should be aloud
So what do you propose? Arresting people for having an opinion?
Don’t disagree with the frustration expressed above. However it doesn’t take much to be pointed and civil. Whether we like it or not it was not a good look. There is a time and a place, and let’s see what progress if any by the time the ‘window’ shuts
CELTIC BOARD ARE FULL OF COWARDS AND LET THE CORRUPT SFA SPFL RUN ALL OVER THEM JUST LIKE SUNDAY SENDING LOYALIST BEATON AND THAT RAT DALLAS TO PARADISE THOUGHT THERE WAS NO HUNS TO BE INSIDE PARADISE EH.WELL I CANT HEAR OUR BOARD COMPLAINING ABOUT THE BIGGEST SCUMHUNS BEATON DALLAS SHAME ON LAWWELL M.NIC
This outburst was purely frustration with seeing Mr lawwell cloak and daggers in the flesh , if the fans could be told there are movements in recruitment more frequently by this silent board then frustrated supporters would not feel the need to vent their anger so publicly.
Hopefully lessons will be learned it’s a bad situation that has to change quickly.