Legal knowledge of football law, mainly UEFA FFP, would also be utilised so that instead of a club asking UEFA if a rule has been breached, putting clubs and SFA in control, a statement from an expert in football law on behalf of thousands of supporters via a Membership Service would be produced. This would be evidence based, preventing the ‘long grass’ tactics that both the SFA and Celtic used to prevent an early conclusion being reached on the noncompliance with UEFA FFP by Rangers in 2011.
The formation of such a Service to a Celtic supporting membership with a global reach needs professional, Celtic-minded folk of integrity, with the relevant business acumen and the energy to get a full-time, professionally run, sustainable Membership Service off the ground.
An enterprise that has the potential to attract Celtic supporters from all backgrounds, sharing their own individual expertise to make Glasgow Celtic a beacon of integrity in a football industry that sadly lacks it.
Without integrity our Gemme’s a bogey – (bogus).
Footnote: This referred to the time Dougie McDonald changed his mind about awarding a penalty at Tannadice and gave a misleading account to then Celtic Manager Neil Lennon which Celtic raised with the SFA and resulted in McDonald retiring as a referee.
I’ve been lucky enough to become acquainted with Auldheid, and it’s fair to say I’d place him amongst the greats who have represented Celtic, our culture and our history. His work over the years with Resolution 12 has not only seen him fall foul of the custodians of our club, but also some within our support who should perhaps have known better.
The thing with duplicity is it can never possibly be construed as impulsive. Someone, somewhere lumped duplicity alongside dishonesty and cowardice together and stated all three could never be an impulsive decision. I’d disagree on two out of three, but wholeheartedly concur on the latter.
Cowardice can be a base reaction, as too can dishonesty. Both can be actioned with a flick of a switch, a flight rather than fight, a little white lie rather than a hurtful truth, uttered or reacted upon immediately.
Duplicity however isn’t a snap decision; duplicity needs to be planned. It is a summing up of a situation and choosing to be deceptive. It is pretending to be someone or something you are not. The deceptiveness in duplicity is intentional, it is deliberate, and it is designed to give one impression, all the while being willing to ultimately deliver another. Duplicity is Machiavellian in nature. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar – “And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs.” That is duplicity in thirteen words.
And that is how Celtic have handled the Resolution 12 debate and that is why the last man standing has chosen that very word of the cornerstone of his most recent article, bringing years of correspondence from 2013 to now into the public domain and asking every single one of us to question, in good times or in bad, – are the current custodians of Celtic the right kind of people to run our club?
Or should the duplicitous nature of the Celtic Board, past and present, and the subsequent treatment of supporters and shareholders by way of those requisitioners mean those very fans, stakeholders and shareholders need to look to find a way to challenge the club, and not just now, not just then, but always be in a position to find a way for the ordinary everyday stakeholder to be in a position to call upon the requisite skills to ensure such a challenge is possible?
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