17/08/16 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIRST PLAYOFF ROUND 1ST LEG .CELTIC v HAPOEL BE'ER SHEVA (5-2) .CELTIC PARK - GLASGOW .Celtic Director Michael Nicholson (Photo by Alan Harvey - SNS GroupSNS Group via Getty Images)
Twenty-four hours after the meeting with fans the outside Celtic PR handlers tried to undo the damage created by Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay.
A charm offensive it was not.
The fact that there was a meeting at all was a surprise, clearly it wasn’t how Nicholson wanted to spend his Monday.
Meeting anyone is something that the Celtic CEO would rather avoid. Meeting those entitled customers that don’t appreciate the brilliance of their £1m a year leading sports lawyer is the last thing that Nicholson wanted to do.
Last week someone inside Celtic decided that they better meet those annoying fans. They could set the record straight and get them back to emptying their bank accounts on the latest club tat. Adidas, Henrik Larsson, whatever.
CHARM OR JUST OFFENSIVE?
It shouldn’t have been too difficult to fake concern and charm for two hours.
Unfortunately that was beyond Nicholson and his chum McKay.
They just couldn’t fake it. The fans were put in their place, told about how successful and well run that the club was. The club that lost out to Kairat Almaty and who have one point from two Europa League matches.
Rather than trying to pacify fans, butter them up the Celtic duo let rip with their cocktail of anger and contempt.
Basically the fans were told to shut up and be grateful because they’ve never had things so good.
As an after thought Nicholson did conceded that communications and fan engagement could be improved on.
And that was it!
This is exactly the placating language I expected them to use last night. They obviously forgot to repeat this PR bullshit in the meeting. The PR company must have been raging. Expect fundamental disagreement on the minutes of the meeting. pic.twitter.com/r59VALaaSU
— John Hughes (@yogijunior3) October 7, 2025
About 10 pm on Monday night a detailed account of the meeting appeared on line. The source was unknown but it was a believable account.
The PR handlers that set up the meeting instantly knew that it had backfired.
Nicholson and McKay had confirmed all of the suspicions of the supporters.
They are aloof, arrogant and treat anyone below their pay grade with complete contempt.
Now the PR handlers had an even bigger job on their hands with their client furiously digging deeper.
DELAYED MINUTES
First up the brakes have been put on publishing the agreed minutes.
Unfortunately the Collective provided a summary at 2pm, it reinforced the tone of the leaked account.
A club statement was issued, it even carried admissions of mistakes made.
That is a change from the sneering anger of the September 6 statement which turned to FSR to blame for transfer failings.
At the Monday meeting European tax laws were raised to excuse deliberately weakening the squad!
The club won’t be allowing that excuse to surface in the approved minutes.
FALL OUT AND FOLLOW UP
With no matches to be played the fall out from the meeting is going to dominate the Celtic agenda for almost two weeks.
Coming up on Thursday the 16th of October is a very badly timed Adidas kit launch, part of the 10 year contract signed earlier this year.
Fans are waiting on that launch like never before but not in the way the folk that Adidas are used to.
It is going to be met with hostility, torn apart item by item.
And then there is the Europa League tickets to watch Sturm Graz for £45 a pop.
The last thing that Nicholson needs now is for someone to pop up with a recording from his ‘fan engagement’ exercise. That would be very unfortunate indeed.
Should the Celtic Fans Collective call for a full boycott of merchandise?
No, we must keep their income flowing
Yes, money is all that they understand
Surely for clarity, transparency and honesty, the meeting should have been recorded and then given over to AI or suchlike to transfer speech into words and publish immediately with no need for discussion/agreement necessary.
If anyone is surprised by what’s known up till now they know nothing of Lawwell and his self-appointed puppets on the PLC Board. He is the central poison at CP and has been for nearly 2 decades. The Irish golfing fanatic must be okay with it all, he is, of course, a major beneficiary of Celtic supporters’ money. A PLC run like a wee family business as I’ve pointed out numerous times before. It’s truly sickening.
I’ve no idea what the CFC propose to do next but the silence, IMHO, is something to do ONCE to make a point and that’s all. Merchandising should be an all-out target to upset Adidas who’ll make themselves heard to the board. Ticketing is also a great way to oppose the board but I must stress that everyone who decides to boycott should also send an email to tell the board why and to ask what their future intention is with regard to OUR club.
Until The Last Rebel, Until The Board’s Gone!
Ha!
Well, to be fair to PL/DD, it’s painfully obvious why MN has been hidden from the media & support all this time! 🙂
…but it’s not a good – nor acceptable – look for the CEO of a PUBLIC limited company.
Monday’s meeting was useful though,
if only to confirm that the CEO lawyer remains wilfully ignorant of the supporters’ legitimate complaints and concerns?
Bloody Hell – Lucan has spoken, well sort of spoken…
And the world is still actually functioning !