Three days after welcoming Hillsborough families to Celtic Park, Peter Lawwell has given an exclusive interview to The Scottish Sun.
While The Scottish Sun claims a degree of independence from the English edition to most people they are one and the same with the newspaper regarded as poison by most Liverpool fans.
Shortly after the tragedy that killed 95 innocent football fans The Sun ran with a front page story ‘THE TRUTH’ which made a number of disgusting allegations against the fans that died as a result of incompetence followed by an orchestrated cover up by South Yorkshire Police.
Since that day The Sun has been toxic on Merseyside despite a half hearted aplogy 23 years later.
News of Lawwell speaking exclusively to The Scottish Sun was greeted with disgust by Celtic fans across twitter with the standing of the £1m/year chief exec at an all time low among many of the hoops faithful.
The interview itself carries little of interest for Celtic supporters, concentrating on the hardships of the chief exec rather than two seasons of spectacular underachievement that has trimmed another 10,000 off normal match-day attendances.
Explaining how he deals with criticism Lawwell tells Sun readers: “I love the club, if it was about the money I wouldn’t be here. I’ve had opportunities to go — for a LOT of money — but I chose to stay.
“It’s not just been one opportunity either but Celtic is my life. It’s more than a job, it’s a passion.
“I’ve supported Celtic all my life. I’d like to think when I do eventually go I can look back and say: ‘I did this, that and the next thing’.
“You’ve got social media and the bloggers, posters and trolls who think they know what’s going on at the club. They don’t.
A breakdown of the chief executive salary from Celtic’s annual audited accounts
“They don’t have all the information. The reality is different from their perception and I need to deal with reality every day but criticism comes with living a public life in 2016. People dislike me having never met me, but that goes with the territory and you either put up with it or you don’t.
“And at the moment I’m putting up with it because I’ve got things to do. But I’ll be honest, the job is all-consuming, it’s 24/7. There is very little time in my life when I don’t think about Celtic and my job.”
Apart from soundbites about an exciting new manager and a new era beginning next season there is nothing of substance to emerge from the interview.
The failings of Ronny Deila aren’t covered or a disastrous transfer policy that will see the new manager having to cull a bloated first team squad aren’t addressed.
If social media is any guide a substantial number of Celtic supporters are set to hold back on renewing their season tickets until various governance questions are answered.
Chief among them is the issue of Resolution 12 when the SFA awarded Rangers (IL) a licence to play in Europe despite appearing to have an overdue tax payable at 30 June 2011.
Related to that many fans are unhappy that the Nimmo Smith enquiry resulted in an unpaid fine of £250,000 despite Rangers (IL) seasons of fielding ineligible players allowing them to hoover up titles and prize money.
Incredibly the SFA and SPFL have transferred the ‘honours’ of the club in liquidation to the club formed in 2012 by Charles Green.
Despite Celtic and Lawwell’s influence on the Scottish game no public comment or questioning of the above matters has surfaced.
Whatever the purpose was of giving an interview to The Scottish Sun it looks unlikely to succeed with little given in terms of answers with the Hillsborough angle leading some to question the judgement of the Celtic chief executive.
Having given an exclusive interview to a rival publication Lawwell can expect increased hostility from other publications with today’s interview unlikely to have fostered goodwill among the fans that contribute to his executive salary.
