all quiet on the east end front

pitchforks and torches not required at the latest agm

 

Despite a spokesperson for the Celtic Trust creating a few headlines, the latest Celtic PlC AGM turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Andy Murdoch reports.

’d never been to a Celtic AGM previously, despite being a share holder since the first issue in 1995. But this year, with the arrival of Dr John Reid and the prospect of seeing a decent debate about the matter, I duly trundled along to Celtic Park to see what all the fuss was about.

Due to the fact that the meeting was being held later in the year than usual it was happening indoors for the first time since the departure of that popular beat combo from a few years back, Kevin Kelly and the Kale Crunchers. The Kerrydale Suite had been cleared for the event.

I turned up about 20 minutes before the start time and was ushered in to one of the front rows in order, I was told, “To make it look busy”. Oh dear were they not expecting a crowd?

A pre-meeting video present
tation of the Lennoxtown construction, highlighting the extensive pre-planning and local regeneration aspects of the project was shown as the room filed up to, I would say, about 450 people and then it was show time.

The Board members made their way on to the stage, but there was no sign of the manager. Oh well.

Brian Quinn made a short statement outlining the agenda for the day and remarking that this would be his last AGM as chair.

Rather than have a series of speeches we had three video interviews with Quinn, Lawwell and Strachan (who had by now arrived, presumably delayed getting there from Lennoxtown).

All fairly standard stuff and all three interviews have since been shown on Celtic TV.
The only thing that stood out was when WGS was talking about player who had left and described Maloney as “unfinished business”. What can that mean?

After that it was on to resolutions.

Prior to attending I did a bit of research on the internet; what were the contentious resolutions proposed? Why were they contentious?

Obviously resolution 3 was the main item, the election of Dr John Reid to the board, but there was also objection to resolution 4 from the Celtic supporters trust which stemmed not from the individual selected but was an objection to the selection process.

The first two resolutions passed without any dissent, but then we reached the election of Reid. First Quinn gave a brief outline of Reid, praising him to the heavens, then asked if there were any questions from the floor. Just to clarify - presumably for anyone not listening properly - he wanted questions not speeches.

First speaker stands up and announces “I don’t have a question but I want to make a statement...” There followed a very angry speech, including the words “war criminal” (that got a loud groan from the rest of the room) and a suggestion that the speaker had seen the statue of Walfrid weeping because of this appointment.

Next up was Dr Jeanette Findlay who re-stated a lot of what the previous speaker had said about Reid’s time in government, described him as one of “the great and the good”, questioned how he was offered the role in the first place (basically saying that Dermot Desmond had engineered the whole thing) and then made a weak case for a fan on board (the implication being that no of the current board are fans).

This was followed with a speech supporting Reid, this gent commenting that he felt Reid was a capable man for the role of chairman and a Celtic man in to the bargain.

The applause that greeted this speech was certainly greater than the response to what had gone previously.

Lastly we had a man who railed against Reid as a sell- out from his ideals in the 60s. He then announced with a flourish that he was returning his season book. Not sure what kind of response he was after here, perhaps anguished cries of “Don’t do it!” but I’m betting he didn’t figure on someone behind him calling out “I’ll have it.” and the room dissolving into laughter. He returned to his seat, tail between his legs.

Then Quinn offered Reid the right to reply. Obviously as an experienced politician he knows how to handle an audience and he had known what kind of allegations would be thrown at him. His response was to re-state his credentials as a supporter, remarking that he wasn’t always driven to the stadium. As a youngster he took the bus (which is kind of getting driven but never mind), stood in the open Celtic end etc. (Hovis music on in the background blah blah).

Reid then addressed his relationships with the current board, pointing out that yes, he knew quote a few of them; he had served in government with one, gone to school with another and met the others at various times, but with the exception of one Labour supporter (presumably Brian Wilson) and one republican (presumably Desmond) he had no knowledge of the political allegiance of any other board member and he had no interest in it. All that mattered was that they were Celtic men.

He then made the well-quoted remark, “When you come to this club, you leave the background, religious division and political division behind you”, but for whatever reason no one covered the rest of the sentence which was, “unlike some other clubs.” Who could he possibly mean?

His speech was a little bit ‘after dinner’ but was well received overall.

The show of hands was approximately 75% in support, 25% against. Motion carried.

Resolution 4, the election of new board member Ian Livingston of BT was also opposed by the CST due to the board selection process, but no one spoke in protest and again the motion was carried, as were the remainder of re-elections and other routine business.

It had all been a bit of damp squib really.

The last item was a Q&A session from the floor.

First up was a question to the manager; was he aware that 99% of the support were not only behind him, but actually thrilled that he was the manager and pleased with the way things had gone. The question itself was greeted with huge applause. After that had died down Quinn passed the question to the manager with the words “I believe the question is; Gordon, are you aware?”

WGS gave the impression of being as happy as he could be in the job, remarking that during his first 5 games in charge when things weren’t going well he had been on a flight to Glasgow and approached by a fan who told him, “You’ll never walk alone at Celtic Gordon”.

After that we had a question about what would Walfrid say about Dr Reid joining the club?

Quinn, for the first time, seemed irritated by this question, but his response was impressive as he referred to the club statement of accounts and pointed out that Celtic are currently involved in more charitable and educational programmes now than at any other time in it’s history.

Next, a ticket issue - people getting rude letters containing all sorts of threats from the ticket office.

Peter Lawwell handled that one by first offering an apology and then offering to rectify problem after the meeting.

Last we had the issue of the current Rangers supporters campaign against Jock Stein and the lack of public response from the club.

Again Peter Lawwell spoke up. He said that the club have been in contact with Rangers over this matter, and had spoken to the Stein family regarding a public statement, but the family are satisfied with the current club stance and as far as he was concerned that was the most important thing. The meeting grudgingly accepted this.

And that was that for the official business.

But before the meeting broke up Dermot Desmond got to his feet and paid a glowing tribute to Quinn. When that finished there was a standing ovation for a clearly emotional Quinn.

AB MURDOCH