The minutes from the Celtic board’s meeting with fans have been released.
After planned silent protests at Celtic Park, the Celtic Fans Collective shelved the silence after the Hoops board agreed to meet the group.
The meeting, which took place on Monday night, covered a wide range of topics which fans are unhappy about, such as communication, transfers and broader strategy.
It was the latest episode in a dispute which began with Celtic fans’ open letter sent to the board, after Brendan Rodgers’ squad was left incomplete after the closure of the transfer window.
The same lack of transfer action led to the team’s disastrous defeat against Kairat Almaty which cost them their place in the transfer window.
Celtic board’s claims debunked
The minutes of the meeting were emailed to supporters on Thursday evening. It was a ten-page transcript which included the words of Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay and others.
Parts of the minutes have generated reactions – particularly Nicholson’s shrugged reaction to Rodgers’ comments about ‘club signings.’
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But what about some of the claims made by the club that lacked context and require scrutiny? 67 Hail Hail examined four in particular.
‘Relevant factors’ of Celtic trying to sign players
One of the issues raised by the Fans Collective related to the signing of players, and the timing of it – something which has repeatedly hurt Celtic.
The minutes say: “When asked if the Club has identified what went ‘wrong’ during the summer transfer
window, MN confirmed that an internal process of review is ongoing, which will focus on what
went right and/or wrong and examine this against relevant factors…
“Including the players’ personal career objectives, the selling/buying clubs aims, agents, taxation (Belgium and Germany tax systems were compared with UK) as examples of the variables at play, amongst
others.”
This is an example of the filibuster which is littered throughout the minutes. Reading Nicholson’s list of factors, you can notice one important thing: not one of these factors is exclusive to Celtic.
These are simply the factors which every club has to navigate the transfer market. Not one of these has ever not affected clubs in the transfer market.
Given the importance of the question, it is equally alarming – and insulting to the intelligence of supporters – that Nicholson’s answer is simply relaying what the process of buying a player entails.
Celtic board claim European results are satisfactory
Celtic’s substandard performances over many years in Europe were understandably one of the topics raised by the collective.
When pressed on if he felt that European performances were satisfactory, the minutes say that Nicholson “felt they were, referring to qualification for group stage football in 19 out of 20 years.”
This is another extremely worrying statement. It firstly frames that unsuccessful qualifying campaigns have been successful.
In nine of those 20 years, the club have been knocked out of the competition that they entered during the qualifying stages, eight of which the Champions League. These are not successes.
The board’s mention of European performances over the last 20 years is in itself ironic, given that the club has not won a single European knockout tie in that period. This framing is the exact lack of ambition that fans are claiming.
Apologies in advance for mentioning our rivals across the city as an example – but in that time, Rangers have made a European final, been liquidated, came back again, and made another European final. Whilst we haven’t won a single tie. Remarkable.
Celtic leak ‘may not necessarily have been a board member’
In reference to the ‘cowardly action’ of briefing against Brendan Rodgers, the board once again made some far-fetched statements.
The minutes state that chief financial officer Chris McKay “said all board members had been asked about the article, and there was no basis for further investigation,” and that “the newspaper source was a ‘senior figure’ which may not necessarily have been a board member.”
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When you examine the contents of the article published in The Sun, this is essentially a direct contradiction to the statements from the leak. Unless this ‘senior figure’ was a member of the football staff, it is extremely obvious that it’s coming from a member of the board.
The leak says: “What he’s said in public has torn the club apart. On and off the record discussions are creating division throughout the club.
“It’s been the same board, same management and same strategy. The club have spent tens of millions.
“When Brendan came back, he agreed to the club’s strategy. There are now people inside the club who are deeply unhappy with his words.”
Whilst it’s impossible to fully disprove McKay’s claim given the anonymity of the leak, the idea that this was coming from anywhere other than the board is wholly unrealistic.
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