Celtic’s five day trip cost the club over £400,000.
The day after losing the derby match at Ibrox Neil Lennon’s squad and a total party of 60 flew in a private charter to Dubai, returning to Glasgow Airport on January 8 to prepare for a match against Hibs that had been put back two days.
What happened in the Emirate will be debated for years to come and is central to the spectacular collapse of the season.
Going ahead with the trip during a global pandemic brought criticism from all directions. Technically there was nothing wrong, the trip was cleared by the football authorities and the Scottish Government but it highlighted the detachment and some would say sense of entitlement within the club.
Peter Lawwell provided a grudging apology after the storm had kicked up but with 13 players and two coaches in self-isolation it was a costly decision in more ways than one.
On Thursday night, shortly before Peter Lawwell announced his decision to quit as CEO, John Paul Taylor hosted a Zoom call with 40 delegates from the Affiliation of Celtic Supporters Clubs.
A whole variety of issues were raised and discussed, one of them was the training trip to Dubai
Kevin Graham of ACSOM ( 10 minutes 50 seconds ) said: “The estimated cost of Dubai was over £400,000.
PJ Dykes: “For me that is sickening. You are talking about the furlough (80% of non-football staff are on furlough) I totally get that; I’m not disagreeing with that but that (Dubai cost) sickens me. That extravagance, £400,000, that sickens me regardless of the outcome and what happened, what went wrong. It was bad enough when I thought that it was £250,000 so that is confirmed. That is astonishing.”