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.
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