Tonight’s much anticipated meeting between the Celtic board and Fans Collective appears to have been something of a carve up.
Rather than answer the seven questions raised in the open letter raised by the Green Brigade Michael Nicholson has delivered a lecture to remind dissident fans of how brilliantly run the club is.
All is working really well, they are a modern progressive club that operates efficiently in the transfer market and is making progress in European football.
It seems that a decade inside the PLC bubble has insulated the Celtic CEO from reality and scrutiny with patronising the order of the day as the Collective were put in their place.
There may be some issues with communications and fan engagement but with his trusty Post It note Nicholson will sort out all of the issues to ensure that the tills in the club shops and Ticket Office are chiming again.
According to a report on the Kerrydale Street forum:
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
The issue of senior figures speaking to a friend of Roger Hannah happened after the open letter was issued, from the account above it didn’t involve anyone at the meeting so the matter is closed.
Either the story was a fabrication on the part of The Sun or senior figures inside Celtic are briefing against Brendan Rodgers.
The Celtic boss described it as a cowardly act, apparently it is a non issue for the club CEO.
Full minutes from the meeting will be published on Tuesday by the Collective but the tome has been set with Nicholson and McKay putting in a performance of Prince Andrew levels.
Celtic’s next match is away to Dundee on October 19, after that they are at home to Sturm Graz four days later in the Europa League.
If the account above is accurate there is likely to be a further dip in the attendance for the Europa League, last week the club claimed that 46,000 had attended the defeat from Braga.
Before the Sturm Graz match the full accounts should be published revealing how much Nicholson and Chris McKay were paid and also the date of the AGM which is generally late November.
CLICK HERE for Lawwell’s reaction to Maeda’s late winner against Motherwell.
Hate to say I told you so but……
The suits have no intention of falling on any swords.
They will have to be forced out.
Unfortunately, 12 min silences and a few thousand unbought tickets ain’t gonna cut it.
Nothing to see here folks, now move along and giz yer money..
I never expected anything else from the meeting. I despise everyone on the board. They are so arrogant, patronising and pig headed and will not change until forced to do so.
Whoever thought scrapping the silent protests would be a good idea has been shafted.
Before the next home league game as many people as possible should gather in front of the main stand and make it clear to the charlatans how serious this is. Also do NOT buy tickets for the Europa League games and come next season do NOT buy season tickets. This is the only way to hurt these scumbags.
But do not ever get to Union Brats levels of threatening behaviour.
Only thing is that the Onion Bears threatening behaviour towards the c level managers seems to have worked!
The meeting was arranged for today to allow Desmond to play golf, in Scotland over the weekend, without any fuss. These charlatans will need to be forced out, Desmond should be forced to either sell up or buy the other shares as per the regulations. His position was only supposed to be temporary, 2 decades ago, he has too much power without accountability.
Well,that’s that. We were all barking up the wrong tree after all,eh?
Those people will answer to nobody.
If there’s a real judgement day and they stand before ‘God’ (also known as Dermot Desmond) they’ll say “we did a smashing job…look at our bank accounts” and who can argue with that?
A waste of fuckin time then…
Imagine being so utterly detested and still wanting to hang around like a stinking pile of fuckin seasick !
Run along now, don’t bother the adults when they’re busy again….. amazing how detached from reality people can get. You’d think they were being asked how they spend THEIR money when it is in fact OUR money as the principal investors in the enterprise.
The only way is to get as many shares under the umbrella of the collective thru that guy Greame Smillie. The is about 15% shares out there floating around. Trace them, then we have real fans breaking into their little masonic club
It was the right thing to do: the fans’ reps. tried to engage with the Board members, in good faith.
MN seems to have approached the meeting with a closed mind, and in bad faith?
Unsurprisingly.
Need to dig the trenches now, for a lengthy war of attrition,
‘cos the grossly over-remunerated Directors are not for listening, changing – or indeed, moving on! 🙁
The timing of this meeting was a set up. International breaks and no opportunity to get them back for nearly two weeks, the board are taking the piss. Stuff the silent protests. Let’s go straight to a merchandise boycott. They only understand money so don’t give them any.
That’s a relief. Everything’s going fine. For a minute there I thought the club was a total shambles. Now that Nicholson and McKay have set the record straight I realise there was no need to worry. Progress is being made on all fronts. We’ve never had it so good. Now lads, get down the Celtic shop and snap up all that Larson gear that they’re selling.
Sorry hermitim – But NOPE ! – Even tho I recognise that you’re extracting the urine (or in ma own code – Taking the pure piss) !
To the people criticising the temporary cessation of the silent protests, I think you’ll find that this was done to appease those ‘personalities’, who would rather blame the GB, and was a sop to serve the cause of unity.
Starve them of money . Dont give them ANY . If we keep giving them money , including season books , nothing will ever change .
Where is the surprise in that ???
It was obvious, and a result for the board in breaking the protests momentum.
Those 7 questions were meaningless. Even if they did answer them, that would probably have been worse, because then you need to wait and see if they are lying.
There should only be one focus if these demonstrations……
A NEW BOARD !!!!
Thats it !!!
Speaking to the people you want replaced…..really !!!
Think about that for a second !!!
Mission accomplished for the board, a communication with the fans box ticked and a demonstration shown for what is is “to them”……
Weak and comical because at first call you downed tools went running for crumbs
Only money matters !!!
“Don’t buy Adidas this Christmas ?”
That’ll get the phones ringing
Editor: Equally the Collective has gone through the formality of giving Nichiolson a platform, he has nothing but contempt for customers so now everything gets cranked up, you don’t need to wait for instructions from UEFA to stop buying the constant club merch.
The board are not interested! Meetings with them are pointless, The only thing they are interested in is money? That is where the fans have the upper hand. It’s the only weapon we have, starve them of cash and things will change?
These individuals have had long enough to prove they are capable of doing their job efficiently.
To constantly wait until the final day of a transfer window to do business, while selling your best assets early in the window, isn’t a strategy, it’s a lottery.
If that strategy is all about saving money in player wages over the summer while the players you really want go elsewhere, is that really world class?
For anyone on our Board to defend such a hopeless recruitment model is an embarrassment. The fans have been told far too many times that”thenext transfer window will be better” only for it to actually get worse.
I never expected anything from this meeting and I said so on this site when it was announced.
It was a terrible call from whoever is running the “rebel alliance”. You can’t go from calling for people to resign to sitting down and having tea with them while discussing their inadequacies. Also if the meeting was at Celtic Park your immediately playing an away fixture as these people are on their own turf.
I’m not sure how our directors gain access to the stadium on a match day but, if it is via the car park built on the site of tge old school, then those entrances should be blocked. A new law recently came in where pedestrians have right of way when cars are turning off roads: constantly have peoples going vack and forth blocking their entry. Block the exit from the back gate or form a gauntlet to the stadium. There should be no violence against them, but they should be under no illusion about the feelings of the support.
These people have had the easy life for far too long. It’s time to make it so uncomfortable for them that they can’t even attend.
It was not a terrible call we have to start somewhere .celtic park is not an away fixture it is our home the fans home as for blocking their way then that would just lead to violence and arrests.
I doubt if any of the fans collective have ever been in the boardroom, except on a tour, or an executive box. First rule of any negotiation is to pick a place you are comfortable in not your enemy and make no mistake about it the collective is view as an enemy.
As for blocking the entrance, pedestrians have the right of way so as long as there is no violence , which I have already said there shouldn’t be, then three hundred people walking in a long loop should cause confusion.
Agree to disagree about the venue .
Absolutely, it’s always good to disagree. That way every angle should be covered.
There you have it – arrogant, detached and dismissive. Time the patronising prik was emptied from Celtic Park. Stick together folks.
Said last week the customer collective had Caved they’d lost the argument before it had begun
They weakened their position not that it would have changed the outcome
so maybe from now on they will lay off the goodwill pish and now ramp up
the attacks on the board
Hve you lot learned nothing from the 5 way agreement shafting
There’s a reason Michael Nicolson is Peter Lawwells lieutenant and has served the dictator for over 13 years and is now Mini Me in his Masters image. His arrogance knows no bounds.
I assume World Leaders are asking Mute Mike for advice on how to run a football club to achieve millions of pounds of profit?
And one unbelievable takeaway from his arrogant proclamations was that the NEDs are consulted if a proposed transfer fee is above a certain threshold? Absolute nonsense! When are NEDs involved in Capex?
He is obviously trying to cover his backside that Dermot Desmond has the power of veto on any expenditure and that NED actually runs the company ( against all legal rules and regulations to the management of a PL. Absolutely shocking.
Thanks for posting this update Joe. My personal view is wide ranging but…..
1 Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me – perhaps a positive is now that the meeting has happened, the more organised within the Collective know that this is the line in the sand now. And going forward, the one thing they listen to is commercial revenue, so yes, unfortunately, if that means less merchandise and less match day attendances, that will keep the power on this side and not back to the executive side
2 It was always going to be at the club – the directors would say that they were working that day anyway or that for reasons of safety, it would have to be. However, that would also (I wasn’t there, so forgive the guessing) mean that they would have the control of questions (ie if you act aggressive you can’t or something), they wouldn’t have that control in a hotel bar or social club and this way, they stop the press getting hold of it (see last point below)
3 We are a passionate lot and if communication with them is kept succinct, professional, basically don’t let emotion cloud the argument. Because they love that. It gives them the excuse to label the fans as plebs that couldn’t string a sentence together. I would have probably written the questions differently but it doesn’t matter as the main points were all included and that is good enough
4 The long game – this is definitely playing the long game. They will hope that the various groups separate, fail to agree and then it becomes easier to just label the GB or another group as an isolated one that’s just moaning. Keep together and keep doing what’s happened so far. Because they are analogue in a digital world, as proven by that ai written nonsense they put out before
5 They are the past. Another thing that will keep momentum is how dinosaur like their thinking is. Fobbing off fans as daft, thick, unorganised (I suspect they’ve called some of us that at times) is where they will lose ultimately. If the Collective remains at least reasonably organised, then they don’t have the business or online acumen to match the passion on this side for change
6 Perhaps it would be worth a serious, genuine look around at who could or would step in. We know that it would be hard to get DD to sell up and he won’t. But he might reduce his holding or someone else could come in and snap up other shares to increase that holding. I remember when Arsenal had that Kroenke and Usmanov were rival shareholders, both around 30%. If…..if there was a way that either an individual or a Collective of serious fund individuals could increase a holding to a high level, then the club would be forced to change as a significant level of shares not agreeing with mn or dd would put a spanner in their works
7 This malaise is a smaller microcosm of Scottish football. Full credit to some smaller teams who are actually run fairly well or at least adequately. And some that punch above their weight with good strategies etc. But on the whole, look at up here vs england and Europe. The sfa, spl, individual clubs, it’s embarrassing, look at Germany, effciently run, fan ownership, progression from youth to senior etc. Why is no-one in this country able to take an executive lead on sorting football out. We could learn (as a country) so much from other FA’s across Europe. But that’s a wider point. With us, keep up the commercial pain for our exec spongers. It seems to be the one thing they listen to. HH