THE CELTIC board will today have to make their position clear on where they stand regarding Resolution 12. This has been rumbling on for years and at every stage the board has seemed happy to kick the issue into the long grass.
Yesterday Celtic released the results of an academic study that shows the value to the Scottish economy that the club provides and in the recent set of financial accounts the numbers were plain to see – Celtic are now a PLC with a turn-over in excess of £100million and have around £30million sitting in the bank.
With that kind of money available to them, you would have thought that the firm of solicitors engaged to handle the concerns of some Celtic shareholders, and backed by the large majority of the club’s support, would have been paid from the club’s funds.
No, in actual fact, not a single penny was contributed by Celtic PLC and it was left to crowd funding by the Celtic supporters online – and it should be stated fans of other clubs including Hearts and Aberdeen, contributed.
This funding allowed ‘the Res 12 Guys’ as they have become known, access to UEFA and the reply that their solicitor – paid for by the crowd funding – received, was dynamite. Andrea Traverso, UEFA Club Licencing and FFP Head, wrote to this solicitor, who was representing the Celtic shareholders i.e. football supporters. This in itself is highly unusual as UEFA would normally only deal with national associations or clubs – and the clubs themselves are often very wary of contacting UEFA directly.
Credit where it’s due to Celtic for helping to open up this channel of communication with UEFA. The Res 12 Guys then had to ensure that they got the contents absolutely spot on – which they did – and had to look at how this was going to be paid for.
That was achieved through the crowd funding and I was pleased to have organised that for them – together with organising the Persistence Beats Resi2tance logo. Various other activities were organised including a media campaign which became a separate story in its own right.
It had three elements:
1. THE SCOTTISH PRESS – The Herald chased the advertising booking but before anything was agreed with them and before they had seen the copy, they contacted me to say that they would NOT carry an ad relating to Resolution 12.
2. THE ENGLISH PRESS – This was just as strange. An ad was booked in The Guardian and a fee was agreed and paid in advance. The price was £5000 plus VAT. Copy was supplied to them to meet their deadline then they stated that they would NOT be prepared to run the ad, giving some bullshit reasons, with were frankly lies. The money was (eventually) returned and was donated to Mary’s Meals to fund a school kitchen project in Africa.
3. THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS – We had to do some detective work to find out which paper the UEFA officials are most likely to read with their morning coffee. The Geneva Tribune seemed to be the paper of choice and the advertising space was booked. The ad was almost identical to the one that should have appeared in The Guardian and The Herald – had it been booked.
It got the job done. UEFA officials saw it and the then Chief Executive Stewart Regan was forced to talk about Resolution 12 at the SFA’s AGM that day. Luckily the ad appeared in the Geneva paper on exactly the right day!
All of that is a sideshow though but it is well worth recalling the story today as it illustrates the effort and commitment shown by the Res 12 Guys to get to where we are today.
There are four of them and they have done well to retain a collective position, despite each having his own individual positions. What is clear is that collectively they have been prepared to wait and to give Celtic the benefit of the doubt.
The waiting game ends today. Today, we will find out where Celtic stands. Hopefully they are on the side of integrity and will back their supporters.
Also on The Celtic Star today…
Radio Ga Ga! “The unthinkable has happened, a terrible disappointment to Hearts,” BBC Commentator David Francey…See HERE.
‘It’s pretty crazy, It’s up there with everything else I’ve done with Celtic,’ James ‘Five Goals’ Forrest…See HERE.
Jim Craig – Murdo MacLeod thundered a tremendous drive past McCloy…See HERE.
Goodbye Europe and hello Champagne Charlie…See HERE.
