Michael Nicholson delivered a lecture on entitlement mixed with contempt to Celtic fans on Monday night.
Protests from supporters led to the formation of the Celtic Fans Collective, since the original open letter was published by the North Curve things have escalated drastically. More than 420 different groups have signed up behind the open letter.
The actions of the club in doubling down/gas-lighting/reading the room has fired up the support, confirming beyond any doubt that contempt is in the DNA of those inside the boardroom, the consequences of the over bearing influence of the current Chairman over the last 20 years.
Seven representatives of the Celtic Fans Collective attended the meeting inside Celtic Park last night alongside the usual tea and biscuits mob that have been involved in these box ticking exercises for years.
Focus, or expectations are now firmly on the Collective, a group that only came into being over the last month covering traditional supporters buses/clubs, groupings and fan media outlets. About as broad a group as you could wish for unifying behind seven key questions.
From the widely leaked report on the meeting Nicholson has basically blanked those questions with a token concession towards improving communications and fan engagement.
Apparently the CEO has a yellow Post It up in his office to remind him of fan engagement- from the guy that has never provided a one to one interview during his four years as CEO, not even a tummy tickling exercise with Gerry McCulloch on Celtic TV to underline what a huge Celtic man he is.
It is easy to go through each line and pick apart the baseless claims put forward by Nicholson that he leads a well run club.
At the 2023 AGM the shareholders were lectured on the view that Celtic were admired across Europe for being a well run club!
Malmo, Maribor, AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland and now Kairat Almaty certainly admire the way Celtic are run, giving each of those clubs Champions League access thanks to a club that constantly fails to prepare.
Nicholson’s botched attempt at a managed decline has cost the club £30-40m this season alone. The three remaining Europa League games are likely to attract a combined attendance of around 110,000. Last season five Champions League ties attracted 300,000 fans paying on average £50 a ticket with a stampede for the limited hospitality offerings.
Since the open letter was published the incompetence of those running the club has been highlighted by two subsequent issues.
On September 5 The Sun publishes the claim from senior figures that Brendan Rodgers was trying to engineer his exit from the club. He has no need to engineer an exit, he will leave the club in May.
According to the account above each director has denied contacting a friend of Roger Hannah, if that is the case the club has questions to answer over the continued media access given to The Sun. Perhaps if access is denied The Sun might decide to blow the whistle on the senior figures trying to trash Rodgers.
The day after the story in The Sun came the ridiculous 1030 word club statement, confirming the incompetence at every level throughout the club.
The agreed minutes should be published later on today, the longer that they negotiate over the minutes the greater the divide.
Sensible moves from the Collective can see support snowball, there is already an unofficial boycott underway of merchandise, building on that is the way to starve the current executives out of office as one highly influential shareholder sees the income streams crash ahead of the key Christmas cash grab.
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4 Comments
by Stevie Bhoy
From what I’ve read, this sounds like a one way lecture. Didn’t the collective have a voice or a say in this meeting? Did nobody call out or contradict what the useless ceo had to say? Did nobody question him on comparisons with the likes of club brugges? He’s claiming success for domestic success. The very least a club our size should be able to achieve in a league so poor. Did nobody hold up a light to Brugge recent European record over the past decade to our own?
by Editor
The Collective was just one of eight different supporter groups. The traditional tea and biscuits guys all wanted their say, the Collective wasn’t directly invited to the meeting by Celtic.
The other groups can go home and feel that they are ITK and probably enjoyed being patronised, the Collective have a meeting on Wednesday night and will have a plan of action going forward.
Whoever is the Celtic account manager at Adidas shouldn’t be counting on their usual Christmas bonus.
by Che
Surely it’s apparent to everyone that they only care about themselves and money ,stop giving them your money
by Eddie McKelvies Capri
There’s a reason Michael Nicolson is Peter Lawwells lieutenant and has served the dictator for over 13 years and is now Mini Me in his Masters image. His arrogance knows no bounds.
I assume World Leaders are asking Mute Mike for advice on how to run a football club to achieve millions of pounds of profit?
And one unbelievable takeaway from his arrogant proclamations was that the NEDs are consulted if a proposed transfer fee is above a certain threshold? Absolute nonsense!
When are NEDs involved in Capex?
He is obviously trying to cover his backside that Dermot Desmond has the power of veto on any expenditure. Absolutely shocking.