Peter Lawwell has been praising Sporting CP for the hospitality on offer at the latest jolly on the European Club Association circuit.
Every few months a talking shop is staged, club executives congratulate each other while UEFA charges on with plans to exclude clubs from outside the top five leagues from the riches of the Champions League.
Lawwell has been on the ECA board since 2014, at that time Italy and Germany only had three direct places in the Champions League, next season five Serie A and Bundesliga clubs will be in the draw for the new look competition.
The champions of Serbia, Turkey and Switzerland will need to go through the qualifying process in order to join the fifth best teams in Germany and Italy in the new 32 team Champions League.
Next season is the last in which the Scottish champions gain automatic entry to the Champions League.
While Lawwell has worked his way onto the executive of the ECA Celtic’s performances and ranking has crashed in European competition.
It is now over 20 years since Celtic won a knock-out tie in a UEFA competition, the win over Barcelona came six months after Lawwell joined as CEO on a salary of £166,000. In 2019 Lawwell picked up £3,549,026 on a turnover of £83.4m. Celtic’s turnover in the year to 30 June 2004 was £67m.
Celtic’s win against Feyenoord in December was their first home victory in the Champions League in a decade.
Discussing the jolly, Lawwell told the Sporting website:
ECA is the only club association recognized by FIFA and UEFA and we have a very important role as the heart of European football. We have a very large network of contacts and we work on behalf of the clubs.
We are getting bigger and bigger, already with 657 members representing the majority of clubs in Europe’s top divisions. We are very proud of this and we had a very interesting meeting.
The hospitality has been exceptional. Lisbon is very special for Celtic FC as is Sporting CP, since we have the same colours and a good relationship with the Board of Directors.
At the 2019 and 2023 Celtic AGM’s Lawwell claimed that he had never read the Five Way Agreement crafted in 2012 to provide a place in the SFA and SFL for Charles Green’s Tribute Act.
Conveniently no retrospective action was taken against Rangers for a decade of fielding ineligible players during which they won five SPL titles and five domestic cups including finals against Motherwell, Falkirk and Queen of the South who paid HMRC to the detriment of the trophy winning prospects.
After stepping down as Celtic CEO in July 2021 Lawwell was appointed as club Chairman in January 2023 with his son Mark appointed as Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment in July 2022.
Mark is apparently looking for exciting new opportunities although his Linkedin profile still has him working for Celtic.
CLICK HERE for Loser Lundstram’s sad farewell.
CLICK HERE for Santa Ponsa celebrates Celtic’s victory in the Glasgow Derby.
