"BUSINESS AS USUAL NOT AN OPTION" CELTIC FANS COLLECTIVE STANDS FIRM
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 26 minutes ago
- 3 min read
I copped a bit of flack from some commenters yesterday on the ACSOM Bulletin.
I said that we, the Celtic fans, are the true owners of this club, and that those who sit in the board room at present only do so because we allow them to, and, ultimately, we pay them to do so.
You can talk about who owns how many shares, and so on, but the reality is, if every Celtic fan stopped going to games tomorrow, stopped buying merchandise, stopped engaging with the club in any way, Celtic would cease to be within a matter of months.
Thankfully, it seems that the Celtic Fans Collective, which is a representative body covering a massively diverse section of the Celtic support, shares my view.
Celtic Fans Collective Rejects Offer of Private Meeting with The Celtic Board
One of the commonly deployed tactics of this current Celtic board has been a divide and conquer strategy. They’ve done it with fan groups, fan media and even influential individual fans at times.
By offering these individuals or groups meetings with senior club officials, such as the invitation extended to three different fan associations by CEO Michael Nicholson a few weeks ago, the plan is clearly to get these groups “onside” with the Celtic Board’s way of thinking and “toe the party line” as it were.
However, it didn’t work the last time (those fans groups have since passed no confidence motions in the current board) and it won’t work this time either.
The Celtic Board invited a handpicked selection of supporters’ groups to attend a meeting about the now completed, yet still unpublished, independent report into policing at the Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park towards the end of last season.
Footage widely circulated at the time showed police arbitrarily detaining fans, kettling groups (including women and children) and numerous other abuses of power.
The club was largely silent then, and it remains silent now.
The board clearly still haven’t learned a damn thing from all the recent animosity towards them, which has now grown into a full-on protest movement.
In a terse, yet eloquent statement, the Celtic Fans Collective made it clear that there will be no more meetings with selected fan groups until the club acknowledges the open letter sent to them at the beginning of this month, and engages in constructive dialogue with fans to resolve the issues raised therein.
Speaking via social media, the Celtic Fans Collective said: “In conjunction with the Celtic Fans Collective, the supporter groups have unanimously voted to decline this invitation.
“Until Celtic FC signals an intention to answer all of the questions raised in the open letter and begin to engage positively with the wider support, we have no confidence in meeting with the club under the current leadership.”
The statement was accompanied by a very simple, yet direct message: Supporters demand change, until it comes, business as usual is not an option.
The board needed a reminder of just who exactly is in charge here, and by standing together, and resisting this latest attempt at dividing the Celtic support, maybe, just maybe, they’ll finally start to get this message.
This may seem like a very small issue in the wider scheme of things, but this is a crucial step for fans seeking to take back our club. This board work for us, and it’s time they realized that.