As we all come to accept that Dermot Desmond’s interview yesterday was nothing but self-serving nonsense, he did manage to give some words of praise to Celtic chairman Ian Bankier.
Yes, the invisible chairman managed to make Desmond’s nice list for the interview with Celtic’s official media team. Speaking about both Bankier and Peter Lawwell, the club’s majority shareholder said the following:
“We are very fortunate to have Ian Bankier as our Chairman and he leads a diverse and extremely talented Board. We could not have had a better CEO, nor a more committed Celtic supporter than Peter Lawwell. He has built a solid platform upon which our new CEO, Dominic McKay, can build.
“In a professional manner we conduct our business behind closed doors, we don’t seek public acclaim for everything we do. Critics are in no position to judge what they cannot see.”
In other words: “We do all this brilliant work by the way. Doesn’t matter if you can’t see it. There’s some amount of work that goes on in the background”.
Well Dermot, please inform us of what this brilliant chairman of ours actually does. What has he done since his appointment back in 2011 to merit us feeling “fortunate” at his arrival?
It’s clear he doesn’t handle the club finances. They’re dealt with by the Chief Executive. It’s clear he isn’t the main voice who decides whether to hire or fire the manager. Again, that appears to be a joint responsibility between Desmond and Lawwell.
Celtic chairman Ian Bankier’s remit remains a mystery
Bankier clearly isn’t involved too much in the recruitment strategy of the club. Again, that’s been delegated to Head of Football Operations Nick Hammond.
All of the traditional remits and responsibilities of a chairman certainly don’t apply to Bankier. Sure, he may have a say in certain decisions, but the Celtic fans won’t be fooled, we know who the true decision-makers are at Parkhead.
Desmond informs us that the board don’t seek acclaim for what they do and that their work isn’t conducted publicly. That’s fine and nobody would expect that to be the case. But I have never heard one Celtic fan demand to know every piece of work on the itinerary to be made public.
All we want is some transparency on the responsibilities key figures at the club actually have. There is so much responsibility-shirking at Parkhead. Yet all we ask is for clarity. What is it that our brilliant chairman is responsible for?
Sure, he’s the chairman of the board. In theory, he chairs all board meetings and sets the agenda of them. It should be his duty to ensure the highest standards of integrity and corporate governance. Yet he appears to make absolutely no decisions of any real importance.
Or maybe he does. Who knows? Certainly we don’t as Celtic fans considering we’ve never been given any indication as to what he actually does.
Desmond’s praising of him fell on deaf ears and rightly so. If it came along with a list of success-stories he’s been directly successful for over the past decade, perhaps a different perspective would’ve been placed on that praise.
Instead, Celtic fans are left wondering what on earth Ian Bankier is actually responsible for. Maybe one day we’ll find out.
In other news, we discuss why Celtic should move for this impressive Swedish shot-stopper in the summer.
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