Ibrox rocked by new shockwave as talks stall with the “politically active” first pick for chairman.

What an incredible breaking story from Ibrox tonight.

Reports suggest that they may have failed in their bid to bring Malcolm Offord, the “politically active” businessman, to the club as chairman. Apparently, they were deep in talks, but those talks have broken down, and they are now considering alternative candidates. The media claims the deal is not quite dead … but it certainly sounds like it. This development deepens the sense that theirs is a club in utter chaos.

First things first—how do you lose a candidate for chairman?

How does a club fail to someone for what is, in most organisations, a largely symbolic position? The chairman’s role at many clubs, including, some say, ours is little more than ceremonial. Our own chairman has insisted repeatedly that he holds no real power and fulfils no meaningful function. He’s leaned on that claim heavily to deflect criticism. And as everyone knows, my response to that is simple: if he serves no purpose, then why is he there? If all he does is hand out pens at meetings, then the position itself is redundant.

What we can say for sure is that Ian Bankier did virtually nothing during his tenure at Celtic except occasionally antagonise the fans at AGMs and make the odd appearance in the press. If the role is genuinely so toothless, why bother filling it? Everyone knows that even the Celtic chairman is ultimately beholden to the whims of the largest shareholder. It’s hard to imagine that the chairman of the board at Ibrox holds any more real authority.

I understand that leaving the position vacant makes the club look disorganised. But let’s be honest—filling it wouldn’t solve much either. Losing a CEO is far more significant, and while they have finally appointed someone to that role, their new man still hasn’t officially started. He seems to be hiding under the bed to avoid taking any responsibility prior to their facing Celtic in the League Cup final. As starts go, there are few which have been more lacking in bottle.

The point is, a chairman’s role at a club like theirs is largely symbolic. It carries no real day-to-day responsibilities unless the person in question wields significant pre-existing influence. Even then, the powers of a chairman are not even close to those of a senior executive member. That’s one reason so many Celtic fans weren’t overly concerned when Peter Lawwell became chairman; his power and authority were much greater when he was CEO.

This is precisely why Ibrox’s apparent failure to secure their first-choice chairman is so laughable. It’s a ceremonial role. It should be impossible to mess this up. For most people, being asked to serve as chairman of a football club should be an honour.

Yet, even with all their spin, all their leaks to the press, and all their talk about what Offord could bring to the club, they couldn’t get the deal done.

This is nothing short of an embarrassment, especially with their AGM looming in a matter of days. How does one club manage to make such a mess of everything? This should have been a slam dunk.

If Peter Lawwell were to step down tomorrow, there would be no shortage of high-calibre candidates for his position. Prominent figures from politics, academia, business, and law would queue up for the chance to chair Celtic. We wouldn’t even need to search—they’d come to us.

Contrast that with the farce across the city.

They’ve now got to “go back to the drawing board.” What does that say except that my earlier analysis was spot on? They were more interested in ideological alignment than competence or credibility, two areas where they have a real issue bringing in somebody with real gravitas.

Offord might have been their perfect ideological fit—his association with Boris Johnson and elevation to the Lords certainly suggest he aligns with the club’s image—but even then, they couldn’t seal the deal.

This has been months in the making. Months of dithering. Months of public speculation. And they still couldn’t close it. Instead, they prematurely leaked his name to the press, spun it to try to gain some narrow advantage, and have now set themselves up to look supremely foolish if, as seems all too likely tonight, the whole thing falls apart.

This reeks of a club in absolute disarray. And if Offord was their first choice, can you imagine what the backup plan is going to look like? Can you imagine the kind of candidate who would take the job now, after this very public pursuit of a different individual?

Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this. In all my time watching Scottish football, and all my years writing about it, I’ve never covered a situation as consistently shambolic as this. They are a club in unrelenting turmoil, and there’s no end in sight.