IT seems extraordinary that a major club, one of whose directors,

Michael Kelly, is a public relations expert, could make such a blatant

misjudgment as to ban Fergus McCann from talking to Radio Clyde in the

Parkhead stand on Saturday.

The Canadian millionaire must have climbed into the radio van outside

the ground, from where he conducted his phone-in, with glee. It is not

often your opponents score an own goal before the game has started.

Considering that many of the Celtic fans were in ugly mood after

another disappointing display in the 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock, the

action was bound to make McCann look something akin to Che Guevara.

Michael Kelly yesterday gave the club's reasons for their decision to

refuse McCann permission to broadcast from the ground.

He said: ''Radio Clyde's sports coverage has for several years been

consistently anti the Celtic board. They have a cheek to expect us to

allow half an hour of anti-board propaganda to be broadcast from the

club's premises.

''As Fergus McCann made clear, the club is facing a takeover. No

company in the UK would allow a person proposing a hostile takeover to

broadcast his message from their offices.''

That may be true, but Mr Kelly must have been aware that by this very

action, he was providing the opposition with some of the anti-Celtic

propaganda which he identifies.

The Celtic board had every right to refuse to appear on a programme

discussing the latest attempt to throw them out and, equally, it may not

have been judicious of the broadcasters to attempt to take the

directors' No.1 opponent into the club's press box.

But by their move, Celtic managed to heighten the impression that

their petted lip is showing in the bunker as the flak flies overhead.

What is clear is that fans, shareholders, players, and management want

to see some kind of conclusion to the power battle which has plagued the

club for the past few years. It has become as wearisome as it has been

damaging to the image of the country's second largest sporting

institution.

The fact is that McCann effectively wants to take over Celtic, even if

he maintains that he is not in the business of getting rid of anybody.

No-one really believes that, if his personal investment of #10m to #12m,

allied to a demand for a new share issue, is successful he will be able

to sit and work in harmony with the White-Kelly dynasty. Far too many

shots have been fired from each trench to make that a feasible

proposition.

It should hardly be a surprise, therefore, if the current incumbents

are not all that keen to agree to a new deal which, inevitably, will

remove them from the boardroom and end the traditional base of rule

which, rightly or wrongly, they feel a family obligation to maintain.

There is nothing wrong with McCann, an apparently genuine Celtic fan

who has made his fortune in Canada, wishing to fulfil his ambitions to

save the club he says is in dire straits.

And in Brian Dempsey, he has another sincere Celtic ally who had

looked like the man to lead the way out of the darkness when he was

appointed to the board three and a half years ago. If Saturday's ban on

McCann was a mistake, the removal of Dempsey four months after his

appointment must rate as a monumental blunder.

Since then, the team has continued to win nothing, the great

uncertainty over the club's future home remains unresolved, and the

gathering impression is that the board has put all its financial eggs in

the one Cambuslang basket.

As the contest rages on, the chances of any management producing a

successful team remain minimal.

A successful club is all about confidence in the men who run it, the

men who manage it, and the men who play for it. That self belief

permeates the very walls of the corridors and is felt particularly

sensitively in the dressing room. The opposite is also the case.

The protagonists in this power struggle expect it to come to a head

this Friday when the agm takes place. It is perhaps not within our remit

to take sides in a dispute where contradictory statistics fly from each

camp, but if the end of the battle is in sight, there might then be a

chance for Celtic to get on with something they have not being doing too

well recently. Playing the game.