AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CELTIC BOARD, COURTESY OF THE GREEN BRIGADE
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 10 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Before we begin here a wee disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the Green Brigade or any other Celtic Ultras group, though I must admit that politically I align with almost everything they say if not perhaps everything they do.
Please keep this in mind with what I am about to say, I do not presume to speak for The Green Brigade, nor indeed the Celtic Board. To paraphrase the great Billy Connolly, I think I, along with most Celtic Bloggers these days. am about as welcome in the Celtic Board Room as “a fart in a spacesuit!”
However, The Green Brigade’s latest, and frankly incredible, charitable endeavor has offered the Celtic Board the chance of a quick and easy PR win, if they choose to take it.
Celtic Board Members Could Show Fans Some Empathy by Matching The Green Brigade’s Foodbank Fundraiser
I was delighted this morning to wake up to the news that, thanks once again to the truly astounding generosity of the Celtic support, The Green Brigade’s annual foodbank fundraiser, which took place this past Sunday was an outstanding success.
Despite all the financial turmoil in the world right now, coupled with the added pressure of it being a little over 2 weeks until Christmas, the Celtic support showed in the words of the late, great Tommy Burns: “You’re there, you’re always there!” by contributing over £20,000 in cash, as well as 8 vans full of food and other essentials for Scotland’s foodbanks.
It’s an utterly atrocious blight on modern Britain that these places even need to exist in a country so obscenely wealthy. However, for as long as foodbanks remain necessary, I have no doubt the Green Brigade will continue to inspire the Celtic support to do all they can to support them.
The Green Brigade released a statement early this morning (Japan Time), in which they confirmed the figures of Sunday’s charity drive:
£20,059.15 raised in cash donations and 8 vans full of food distributed to local food banks that very same night.
The Green Brigade’s statement added a single line at the end, taken from the mission statement of Celtic Football Club when it was originally founded in 1888:
“A football club shall be formed for the maintenance of dinner tables for children and the unemployed.”
I wonder what our current executives think about that statement.
Last year’s figures reported that Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson made just shy of £850,000 for his annual salary, including bonuses but not including share dividends.
Chairman Peter Lawwell also banked a base salary in excess of £100,000 though again the dividends paid via his shareholdings probably ensure that the actual financial benefit to him from Celtic over the past year is several multitudes higher than this baseline figure.
Let’s just be a bit generous and say that, between them they made £900,000 last year as a ballpark figure. On that collective number, it would take just over 10 days for them to earn the cash amount amount that Green Brigade raised on Sunday.
So, here’s a challenge, a chance for our executive team to show that they aren’t as out of touch with the common fan as they appear to be.
I challenge the Celtic Board collectively to give something back to the club, and to it’s most impoverished followers. Will they give up a week and half’s wages to match the amount the Green Brigade raised at the weekend?
The disputes ethical, moral and legal between the Board and the GB are a separate thing. We’ve been told consistently that the current board are all “deeply committed to the club and love Celtic.”
Well, I cannot think of a better way to show that, than to match the sums raised by those same supporters. The Celtic Board have made it clear on a number of recent occasions that they want the Celtic support to be as apolitical as possible.
I think we all know that’s hopelessly unrealistic given that our very existence as a football club is predicated on fighting back against the prejudice, bigotry and manufactured famine endured by our Irish ancestors back in the 19th century. These are all political issues, no matter how vehemently the "keep politics out of football" brigade want to deny it.
Also, let’s not kid ourselves, most of the current conflict between the Celtic board and The Celtic Fans Collective, which includes the Green Brigade along with hundreds of other supporters’ groups, stem from adherence to two radically different political ideologies.
The Celtic Board room at the moment is an autocracy, fixated on capitalistic gains at the expense of almost all other aspects.
Fans want to see the club return to its more socially responsible origins, based around equality, fair representation, accountability, and above all else, democracy.
However, the Board could side step all this political stuff, at least for the time being, with this one-off gesture of goodwill. It would not meaningfully impact them in any way, nor does it represent any form of concession or capitulation in their ongoing dispute with the Green Brigade.
Celtic’s CEO could easily come out and say something like this: “Whatever our differences are, I congratulate the Green Brigade on their fundraising efforts. Charity is what Celtic always has been, and always should be about. So, as a one-off gesture of goodwill and in the hope of future, positive dialogue with fans, my fellow board members and I would like to match the funds raised by last Sunday’s charity drive.”
It’s an easy PR win, for what is an absolute pittance to those in power at Celtic Park.
Going without ten days wages would not hurt anyone in the boardroom, but could quite easily save lives out in the real world. Christmas is a joyful time for most of us, but for those impoverished, alone or forced to work like dogs just to keep the lights on, this tiny gesture could go a long long way.
It should be a no brainer, especially for people like Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell who, on the rare occasions that they speak publicly, never miss an opportunity to remind us that they have the best interests of the club at the heart of their decision making. This is the perfect opportunity to prove their sincerity in this regard.