Truth be told I like many Celtic fans have little trust in Peter Lawwell any longer.
The story during the pre-season that recruitment at the club had been left to decay for three months, to the point no players had been scouted while the supporters looked forward to timely signings and navigating the Champions League qualifiers was simply neglect.
To oversee that and wait for compensation to arrive from Leicester City for Lee Congerton before even looking into alternative strategies was a dereliction of duty. We reaped what we sowed with that strategy as the supporters lost out on Champions league football at Celtic Park for the fourth time in six years.
The slap in the face soon followed when the missing millions were paid for by the sale of Kieran Tierney. The shareholders sheltered, dividends returned, Bonuses back on target. The only thing damaged was the club’s reputation in Europe and an opportunity for most of football’s greats to pass through Parkhead’s gates once again.
Then as The Green Brigade collected for foodbanks in the wind and rain our CEO was looking down on them from the warmth of the Celtic boardroom planning their banishment.
In line with the ethos of our club, donations were gathered during Celtic’s game against Livingston on November 23. The Green Brigade organised it all as Hoops fans helped deliver eight vans worth of food and toiletries to foodbanks thanks to donations totalling £17,897.60. All the while the club had already decided to ban Celtic fans from attending the next game.
Whatever you think of the Green Brigade they are Celtic supporters, to ban them from the ground was a precedent set. It could be any of us for anything our board finds uncomfortable, anything that damages their perception of brand Celtic.
The ban announced three days before the game with Rennes in the Europa league by a vindictive Lawwell, still no doubt smarting from an earlier banner in the North Curve accusing the board of being asleep at the wheel was calculated. Lawwell was taking no risks at defiance around Resolution 12 due on the AGM agenda that Friday. The board was recommending Resolution 12 be voted down at the vote due only two days after the ban was announced.
“The Board does not consider it to be in the best interests of the Company to take the steps proposed by the resolution. The Board recommends that you vote against this resolution”.
Company, directors, shareholders, customers. Never supporters. The soul of the board went to the vote with that statement. It will be written on their gravestone.
The expulsion was to begin for the game taking place the following night. Coincidence? Not when you consider the ban when announced was open ended. No end date. As predicted this was the only game where the Green brigade were absent. The ban was lifted in time for the League Cup final at Hampden and the next home game with Hamilton.
Lawwell knew what he was doing. There is less risk of adverse publicity when you ban the most vocal and visual element of the support from the game the day after the Annual General Meeting.
I said at the time it was smoke and mirrors and I stand by that. The board was not in any way bothered about fireworks and stadium closure threats, as there was no such threat. It was a pillow to smother negativity following Lawwell’s stabbing in the back of the Celtic support.
The final nail in the coffin for me came at this year’s AGM when Lawwell looks like he lied to the Celtic support.
At the AGM in November Joe McHugh of VideoCelts asked Peter Lawwell the question.
“Was anyone at Celtic involved in 5 way agreement”?
And Lawwell answered with a straight bat.
“No and I’ve never seen it”
When asked a supplementary question as to whether Lawwell thought it would have been useful to see it, it brought another negative reply.
Since then American blogger Larry Cafiero’s interview-arranged with the assistance of The Celtic Star’s editor-with respected Resolution 12 campaigner Auldheid was run on both his own website ‘67 In the Heat of Felton’ and on The Celtic Star. It was an interview that blew Lawwell’s response apart. It’s worth a quick revisit:
Larry asked the question.
“How could Lawwell claim at the AGM that as Celtic CEO, he had never seen the hugely important change to the rule book that is the 5 Way Agreement? Did he mislead the AGM or is he negligent in his duties to shareholders in not having made sure he had seen this document and had a say in what it said before it become part and parcel of the Scottish game”?
Auldheid then dropped the grenade:
“Again, that is for Peter Lawwell to explain. It is simply not credible and would be bordering on total negligence not to have been involved, but the 5 Way Agreement final draft was attached to an email from Neil Doncaster dated 26 July 2012 to then SPL Board members including Celtic Director Eric Riley and to Peter Lawwell. No reply or challenge by next day would be taken as agreement, so even if at that late stage the contents of the attachment were not known, simply by not opening it Celtic gave the SPL their approval to its contents”.
Since then this e-mail has surfaced as you’d expect after a public outing of this nature. Lawwell’s lies are out there.
This I bring up because his judgement as well as trustworthiness is now questionable. His gambling backfired in the summer, his judgement on his handling of the Green Brigade affair was so transparent it may as well have been wrapped in cellophane.
His answering of a direct question despite knowing here was evidence to the contrary showed an arrogance that is now dangerous.
Lawwell’s disdain for the intelligence of the Celtic support shows the man has his eye off the ball. Our CEO is underestimating and miscalculating far too often for it to be anything other than a man too comfortable in his role, who with Dermot Desmond’s backing feels he is untouchable, accountable to no-one at Celtic other than his majority shareholder- and his game is likely to be up as the scrutiny on his fallibilities increases.
The latest miscalculation may well be in his inaction in the January transfer market although the Rangers blinking is becoming something of a habit, luckily enough. He has not backed his manager’s judgement on what he wanted and judged as needed, never mind the Celtic supporters to bring home 9 in a row. Unlike European football he gets no second chance with this title challenge, there is no Europa League parachute. It is win or bust. He’s gambling again.
Do you have faith in Lawwell’s grasp of the situation, do you trust he has weighed up like an actuary or like a punter in paddy power with one too many pints of Guinness down his gullet picking numbers on a match day coupon?
Despite all of this, despite the failings, the amateurish approach to football governance, the lies, deceit, lack of support for our players and our supporters it is time for a truce. From the moment Celtic kick off at Hamilton tomorrow we need to unite, their is a Magnificent Seven advantage to be had with another win.
This isn’t because I’m resigned to Lawwell remaining in post far from it. The reason is nine in a row is on the horizon. It is the most important season in my lifetime as a Celtic supporter since Larsson and Brattbak stopped Rangers reaching ten successive titles.
For now we cannot sign players, we have to focus on the prize, and for now public division will only hurt Celtic. I want Celtic to have no distractions from within our support we’ll get plenty of that from our enemies.
Be certain though win this and it will be in spite of Lawwell’s running of this football club. A sloppiness and staleness has set into his work. He has been in post too long. Lose this title and he’ll be hounded out of office anyway. There is a reason I’m confident of that. Resolution 12, the continuity myth and five way agreements will bring Lawwell down. Add to that his nemesis is moving into view.
David Low has been appointed as head of the Celtic Trust. This is a man who can bring disparate groups together behind a common cause. David Low can unite the fans behind one organised banner. Auldheid was one of the first to react to news of Low’s appointment and you would certainly hope the new Chair of the Celtic Trust will reach out to Auldheid and arrange a meeting to discuss how these areas that of great concern to tens of thousands of Celtic Supporters.
Low is best known to the Celtic support as a financial adviser and campaigner who helped bring Fergus McCann to the club and assisted in his ultimately hugely successful take-over, ousting the discredited and outdated old board in the process and setting Celtic on the road to a period of domination. Indirectly too these events sent Rangers FC on the road to the graveyard. When he sets his eyes on a goal he has a habit of seeing it through – hopefully he’ll live up to that billing and break bread with Auldheid as soon as possible.
For now though we all have one goal. Nine in a row. The rest can rest for now. Not sleep, just rest. It may be an uneasy truce but no shots need be fired in anger until that ninth title sits in the Celtic Trophy cabinet.
Niall J
