The board

You're simplifying it, though.

The club has been around for 137 years and only once in it's whole history have the fans managed to do anything together. I think the vast majority despise the way the club is run, myself included and I would be more than happy to see any sort of protest, be it financial or physical. The simple reality is, getting everyone to pull in the same direction is incredibly difficult when not everyone believes in the same things that most of us do.

I was sitting around people last night who were shaking their head at the sack the board chants. They're really nice guys and I've sat round them for years. They just believe something different to you and I. They're allowed to hold their views and they're allowed to disagree. The COVID season was just about as bad and as toxic as it could have got and only then, after the infamous shark barrier, did the club even acknowledge the fanbase. And still, after the toxicity of that season and the horrible way the club was going in that season, there were some fans who disagreed with the way things were playing out with the fanbases. The Celtic Trust seen an influx of memberships for what? 3/4 months? They own absolutely nothing and that was about as collective as the fanbase have been in 30 years.

The Green Brigade and Bhoys are detested by large elements of our support for their views and their entitlement. They've not helped themselves either, over the years. So, the ultras, which you would expect to be the driving force in any sort of collective response to the way we are being run, are about as polarising a group as the * board. So, it's incredibly difficult. Individual people not buying football strips, cup tickets, merchandising of any sorts without a collective effort is pointless.

 

The protests should come even if we qualify.
One performance doesn't fix the fundamental issue.
How to do that effectively needs careful consideration, but it needs to happen.

 

They suck all the joy out of supporting Celtic

 

I’m not the boards biggest hater, I’m also often critical of the GB.

None the less the people shaking their heads at the anti board sentiment last night was utterly embarrassing to me.

People around me waxing lyrical about how good a job the board do and *, enough to make you nauseas tbh.

I was the only person clapping along in the midst of it as well. The same people sit in utter silence most of the game but decided to pipe up to defend the board

Like I mentioned, I sometimes give the board credit (more than most Celtic fans) but we are more than entitled to grumble right now, sod the happy clappers.

 

Aye, there was a fair bit of tutting in my section as well. I was one of few chanting along with it, and I consider myself to be one of the more positive people regarding the club.

There’s appreciating domestic dominance and the work that the players have done to achieve that, but aLao acknowledging that we could be in a much better position if we were run like any other modern football club. We’re not. We’re ridiculously amateurish in our dealings to the point of neglect, and the board are to blame. 100%. There’s a difference between recognising that and throwing the toys out of the pram when we lose a league game.

Bodo/Glimt make us look like Motherwell on a fraction of our budget.

 

How can people still have this view?

Utterly bizarre.

 

Exact same in my role, it's all very dated at Celtic. Even the smaller clubs like Aberdeen and Hearts are modernising quicker. Fans and shareholders want to see strategic direction. There is none.

 

My mrs didn't even speak to me last night cause she knew how * off a was She usually takes the * if we have a * result but she didn't bother last night. Im still raging.

 

They have zero interest in the support let alone our opinions. Literally the only access we have to the board or some of them at least is once a year at the annual back patting session.

For the brief period Dom McKay was in the door we seen more of him in that short spell than we have of Nicholson and Lawwell combined in their tenure at the club. This summer has really opened my eyes to just how take take take the club is and they have given us literally nothing in return

 

Listen up because this is very important.

The only way can happen is through mobilising buying up shares. While the Celtic Trust position is good and very noble, it's idealistic and not really every likely to happen. Celtic fans need to mobilise together and try and persuade new investment from wealthy people who actually have an ambition for Celtic to be the best football club they can be. The Trust of another organisation should be mobilising and trying to get the right people with the money behind them into taking control of Celtic.

People lazily like to continue to parrot out the nonsense "Dermot Desmond calls the shots" which for someone who has worked in PLCs, who has experience working with boards through audits and reporting directly to them, I know this to be complete and utter horseshit.

Desmond owns 34% of the club, he has one seat on the board. He cannot block anything, he wasn't at Celtic Park last night, he rarely if ever is, he can't even be bothered to attend our board meetings, he does so by proxy. Dermot Desmond is Celtic's biggest shareholder, in absentia. He is a billionaire who is effectively retired, he's 75 now, he spends most of his time on the golf course. He lives abroad, he has a vast portfolio and has stakes in a number of different industries and people want to continue peddling the myth that a 75 year old retiree is deciding on, by himself, every major decision? Desmond is a major problem but its his apathy towards Celtic that is our major issue.

It's the board who make the decisions at Celtic, not Desmond. He has a seat on the board but given the fact he's not even bothered to attend board meetings itself, it stretches credibility that he then oversees and needs to sign off on every major decision. He is chairman of other companies, he owns hedge funds, has large stakes in tech and mining companies, he sits on other boards and he's 75 years of age, living abroad and plays 18 holes of golf everyday. People like Desmond don't have the time or capability of being hands on with that kind of porftolio, particularly at this stage in their life. Desmond delegates the running of Celtic FC and decision making to our board but he is NOT a majority shareholder. He delegates his other interests in his other lines of businesses too to his trusted lieutenants - Peter Lawwell is the man who runs Celtic.

We have two problems at Celtic, the complete lack of competence and strategy from our board and executive team and the complete apathy from our shareholders as to how the club is run. If the shareholders cared about our club, the board would be removed and don't be under any illusion - Keane and Trainer and all the rest of our significant shareholders are every bit as guilty of this as Desmond is. Every year we hold an AGM and the appointment and reappointment of directors is voted on. Every year is a complete landslide for the same board to continue so there is complete alignment on how this club is run all across our shareholding. Why don't Keane and Trainer vote against the board? Why don't they get a seat on the board? Like Desmond, they simply don't care. They are all passive investors.

As I've said before Lawwell is the man who runs Celtic, he is delegated by Desmond to do so, who is a passive investor. Nicholson I believe is just a front man and a very well paid one who will seek the counsel of Lawwell on any major decision. People who know how board rooms work will know that anyone who is not a majority shareholder can not run a club without complete strategic alignment from a majority of shareholdings and board members. It's like a government formation, if you don't have the majority, you can't rule and you need to make alliances - the unfortunate thing for Celtic is there doesn't seem to be an opposition in our shareholding other than a small % of fan shares. All our other main shareholders are on the same page.

When you have an absolute clown like Tom English coming out and saying its Dermot Desmond who calls the shots then you can see that for the nonsense it is. I have never ever heard Tom English get anything right in his whole career.

 

They are narcissists, they don’t care what others think.

 

It’s Dermot Desmond who has the final say on signings, he is the one that gives the go-ahead to release funds for transfers. He is the root of the problem. He loves Lawell because he’s on the same wave length as him, a penny pinching fat cat who doesn’t want to move Celtic onto the next level. This has gone on for years and years now - it’s obvious with this lot in charge we will go nowhere in Europe.

 

And thats it in a nutshell for me. If its not fun and enjoyable for me I have to ask myself why the * am I doing it? Life's too short

 

The only thing that would be effective against them is if we hit them in the pocket, but we have too compliant a fan base for a proper boycott.