WHAT THE CELTIC CEO ACTUALLY SAID TO “FAN GROUPS” ON FRIDAY: THE FIRST HALF
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
We had the now infamous “Celtic insider” speaking to The S*n on Saturday morning then we had that statement on Saturday night, the authorship of which remains a mystery.
However, thanks to the efforts of a few sources of our own, ACSOM can today shed some light on the one part of this debacle which has, for the most part, floated under the radar until now.
Celtic CEO Meeting Went as Well as We All Expected
Plenty of points were raised by the representatives of the fan groups invited to last Friday's meeting, namely the Celtic Supporters Association and the Irish Association of Celtic Supporters Clubs.
However, unsurprisingly the club’s response was a combination of hand-wringing, refusal to acknowledge any fault and criticizing other parties not present and so not able to speak for themselves.
Also, there are some glaring contradictions between what Michael Nicholson and other Celtic senior staff present at that meeting said, and what has been said elsewhere in public by Celtic’s manager and numerous others.
On the subject of transfers, and how they fit into our long term footballing strategy, Nicholson told those in attendance on Friday: “The club and the manager are in accord with every signing target. Players are not bought without the manager’s approval. “
Let’s just be direct here, we know this isn’t true. Brendan Rodgers has admitted as much in recent weeks, and his reaction to some of this summer’s signings, particularly Hayato Inamura tells us that he clearly wasn’t a player the manager wanted to sign.
Nicholson's statement at the meeting also directly contradicts the allegations in the following morning's edition of The S*n, which alleged Rodgers was a loose cannon working to his own agenda.
If Nicholson was aware of the S*n story at the time of this meeting, then he's being dishonest and disingenuous with supporters at the meeting.
If he wasn't aware of such a huge leak of private information from a source high up in the club, then he's grossly incompetent and needs to be fired immediately.
I'll leave it up to you to judge which of these two options is the truth.
In terms of fan communication, this is where things get really ridiculous. The club said: “All registered fan organizations have the CEO’s contact details and can request a meeting when required.”
I know personally of several people from various fan groups who have requested meetings with the Celtic CEO and indeed other board members a multitude of times over the past year. Not only are these meetings not granted, in most cases, the requests aren’t even acknowledged.
Once again, the club are being “economical with the truth” here.
They continued: “The club operates a rotational invitation to fan media conferences, but these aren’t always acknowledged by participants.”
Ok, let me address this one head on. Certain fan media outlets, unsurprisingly enough, those who are highly critical of the current board simply do not get invited to these events. Also, for those of us who do, of which ACSOM is, on occasion one of the lucky few to get an invite, these often come at very short notice.
Indeed, we’re lucky if we ever have any more than 24 hours’ notice of a fan conference. The club know all too well that of many of us who work in fan media do so on a part time, or voluntary basis, in addition to other work obligations.
Arranging the free time to travel to these conferences (online is hardly ever offered as an option, despite it being very straightforward to set up), simply isn’t an option at such short notice.
So, it’s not a question of “not acknowledging” the club’s gracious invitation. It’s more a case of “sorry, had you told me in a timely manner, I would have been there, but I’m now busy with something else”.
The club also said that "Fan Forums are held on a regular basis".
I suppose my numerous requests, and those of several other Celtic fan media folk I know, for an invite to one of those must have been lost in the post...
With regards to recent incidents concerning fan safety within the stadium, the club were about as flexible as that steel wall they erected in the North Stand without telling anyone.
“Regarding crowd migration, pyros, etc, the club cannot compromise on safety and ask fans to comply.”
How do I put this delicately?
No one is suggesting that you compromise safety, quite the opposite in fact. But the club’s refusal to engage with fans on issues such as the erection of arbitrary and unnecessary segregation measures within areas of the home support is, in itself a safety risk.
The confusion created by the club's total lack of dialogue on this and indeed pyros (which I acknowledge is a far more divisive subject, with actual legal implications) invites trouble and compromises safety.
Again, the club are seeking to project the blame onto anyone but themselves here.
I’ll leave it here for now, but this is a developing story, especially since the CSA has, as a consequence of this meeting, passed a motion of no confidence in the board.
But I’ll be back later today as we dive into the financial aspects, and what Celtic had to say about the huge gap between fan expectations and their own, perceived reality.
More to come soon.