Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has delivered his thoughts on the debate between football traditionalism and commercialisation.
The Hoops boss, while giving an update on a range of issues, was asked for his take on modern football, after explaining what the sport had done for him. And he made some really good points, including one in particular about boardrooms not representing the diversity of a club’s support base.
In typically articulate style, Celtic boss Ange pointed to the example of the European Super League as a time clubs got it wrong. Additionally, he believes supporters will always make themselves heard if the image of their club strays from a meaningful tradition.
Ange Postecoglou said [Celtic FC]: “I think the good football clubs or the strong sporting clubs understand [their fans] still.
“There’s always going to be this fight between the traditional core values of a football club, and what we know as commercialisation. You need resourced to sort of make sure football clubs grow.
“But you’ve seen it in the past. Whenever a football club goes too far from its roots, there’s inevitably a backlash. You realise ‘ok, this is not who we are’, and supporters are usually the first ones to bring it back to earth in terms of that.
“We saw with the game in general, when they tried to mess with the European Super League, and everything like that last year. A lot of these decisions are made in boardrooms with people who are fairly like-minded in life. They don’t have the diversity of what a football club supporter base has.
“I still think that the really strong clubs… will always stay close to who they are. Because I don’t think supporters will let them get too far from that.”
Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou shoots from the hip once more, this time on modern football
There’s a really, really good point made in there.
Typically, boardrooms at clubs are made up of the same kinds of people. A cursory glance at the Celtic board, for example, shows this exactly. Politically, age-wise, in terms of social status and gender, it’s hardly the most representative boardroom.
In Europe, there was perhaps never more public disconnect between fans and those running their clubs than when the Super League problem erupted. It showed the real chasm in income, ambitions and expectations between those who pay to watch a football club, and those who own it.
The victory there, though, was that the clubs ended up listening to their supporters. It also left football fans with an interesting question; do we need more supporters active at boardroom level?
You see the push for that at Celtic, in the form of groups like The Celtic Trust and Celtic Shared. A substantial number of the Hoops faithful feel, especially after last season, that the expectations and the style of leadership at top level just doesn’t chime with the supporters. There were countless examples of that friction played out over 20-21 and the start of this season.
Some degree of fan ownership, or at least a fan presence in decision-making, is surely the future. For now, we can at least enjoy the fact we’ve a manager who gets it, is informed about the landscape in football, and isn’t blinkered by the bright lights and the finances.
Instead, he’s interested in the stories, and what can be achieved for the supporters. That’s important.
Read more: “Superb”; Former Premier League goalkeeper astonished by Celtic under Ange
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