The Celtic board’s fractured relationship with the fans is no closer to being healed as fan protests ramp up ahead of the Aberdeen visit today.
The Celtic Fans Collective’s recent announcement has issued a rallying call to fans to meet at 2pm for an ‘historic demonstration’ where supporters will have the chance to call on Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay and Brian Wilson to resign.
With tensions higher now because of the run of Celtic results under new boss Wilfried Nancy, the board are under serious pressure.
Not helped by their lack of communication and the Celtic board banning the Green Brigade, the Parkhead suits could do well to look at Queen of the South, who just delivered a masterclass on how to build fractured relationships as their CEO helped launch a new anti-pyro initiative.
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Celtic could learn from Queen of the South on how to build fan relations
Queen of the South CEO Dan Armstrong helped the SPFL launch a pyro awareness initiative where he spoke about the dangers of using the illegal fireworks.
And as Armstrong did so, he explained how his club managed to open lines of communication with their own Ultras which leaves Celtic looking rather amateurish.
Armstrong told The National, “We have a young group of lads who are actually brilliant lads.
“It doesn’t make them bad guys because they come to the games with pyrotechnics. Every time we said, ‘guys we need to stop, the police are on at us’ they would come back with, ‘why are the police on at you?’
“Initially they took pride in the fact that they were actually leading Scotland at the start of the course. By the end, they were a bit embarrassed and when we had that chat with them they were receptive to the whole thing.
“Sometimes when you work with teenagers of that age, it’s difficult to gauge how they will take to being told this, that and the other. But on the course we said to them, ‘guys we’ve all been young, we’ve all done things like that’.
“I used to follow Burnley up and down the country and if I was to say to them that I never saw a flare go off I would be lying.
“So we said to them, ‘this doesn’t make you bad people’. We just had to give them the education and what the implications were for us as a club.”
Queen of the South fan engagement is miles ahead of the Celtic board
And as Queen of the South prepared for their trip to Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup, Armstrong made a superb gesture that helped solidify his club’s relationship with the Ultras.
Armstrong continued, “We told them that if there was no pyro between then and the game, we would pay for the bus to Dunfermline.
“There were 35 of them who went to Fife. They were aged between 13 and 20 and navigating to Glasgow, then Dunfermline, by public transport wouldn’t have been easy.
Celtic statement on Green Brigade ban
“The fact they now feel free to approach the club and explain their situation and ask for help to get out of it stems, we believe, from the pilot. We would never have developed this relationship with the young team if it hadn’t been for the project.”
This type of forward thinking leadership is what is needed at Celtic. No bans and no public slurs, just open lines of communication to solve deep-rooted issues between a club and its supporters.
If Celtic adopted this kind of model with the Green Brigade instead of ignoring the Celtic Ultras’ vast array of emails, maybe the fracture at the club would not be as huge.
Take note Nicholson & Co because a Scottish League One club has just schooled you in how to effectively build a relationship with their supporters.
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