The pantomime season may be just around the corner but it seems to have started earlier this year as the club’s AGM took place at Celtic Park, oh yes it did, sort of!
A shambolic meeting in which the board cemented the very reasons why so many fans are howling for change, and howl they did. While there may not have been any Mars Bars thrown at the current custodians just about everything else bar the kitchen sink was – verbally anyway.
It was clear right from the first whistle that this AGM wasn’t going to pass as it does most years, stage-managed by the club as a back-patting exercise with a few cheap jibes thrown in about Rangers to appease shareholders, and everyone enjoying a wee cup of tea before heading home happy.
Shareholders were determined that the usual run of the mill proceedings would be anything but, and before we could even get to the end-of-season-type “glory” video that precedes the resolutions for vote, Peter Lawwell was posed a question from the floor, one he wasn’t willing to answer. He then demanded “respect” but that only prompted numerous shareholders in the audience to question the board’s respect, or lack of, for the fans.
The AGM was scheduled to start at 10.30am and finish at 12.30pm.
I was in the Number 7 suite/restaurant which was being used as an overflow. As there was a much bigger turnout than normally., However, from my position it was hard to gauge what was going on in the audience in the main room, as the camera focused on the table hosting the board, but red cards could be seen being waved and there were chants of “sack the board”.
The chairman then decided that he was using his authority to adjourn the meeting for 30 minutes which led to an even bigger outpouring of dissent from those within the rooms. He could have rode it out and let the situation calm but he chose to go down a different route, no doubt such an eventuality would have been discussed beforehand.
Let’s get one thing straight here, the dissent wasn’t coming from a small minority. The vast majority of those present seemed to be onside with the protestors.
The half-hour passed and Lawwell informed the shareholders in the audience that the AGM would finish at 12.30pm as planned, which would either eat into the Q&A or mean it wouldn’t take place at all. When the meeting did resume it did so with the aforementioned video, outlining the previous season’s successes which included the women’s team reaching the Champions League, the Barrowfield development and a variety of improvements at Lennoxtown, such as a cinema room (for match analysis). The video also included interviews with Lawwell and Nicholson which stated the obvious – loosely along the lines of – we want success, we’re Celtic fans too, we hurt too, blah blah!
Then, in an unusual move, Dermot Desmond’s son Ross was given the time to read a statement on his (absent again) father’s behalf.
He mentioned Fergus McCann asking his father to “help” Celtic in the 90s, before launching an astonishing attack on supporters in which he portrayed his da and the other board members as victims who were refusing to be bullied by those who are “anti-establishment”.
Does he know anything of Celtic’s history?
It was a disgraceful statement that again showed Desmond (Snr) and the other board members have nothing but contempt for supporters. The audience present responded with what could be described as fury, as shouting broke out before Lawwell called a halt to the proceedings.
Talk about being unable to read the room ffs, if anything it showed the narcissistic side of the directors who seem to lack any self-awareness whatsoever, and Desmond as a self-determined dictator who cares not a jot about anyone bar himself and his cohorts.
The outcome was that Lawwell and Desmond (Jnr) were able to get across the message they wanted to, that seemed to be their only aim, before the meeting was abandoned. Instead of olive branches being offered, battle lines seem to have been drawn.
The club can ban as many supporters as it wants – this clearly isn’t going away anytime soon, nor quietly.
Michael Pringle is a Glasgow Journalist
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