Growing rift between Celtic board and fans

CELTIC'S failure to complete the very achievable task of finding a way past Kairat Almaty leaves supporters with the prospect of an unappealing season in the Europa League and Sunday fixtures to contend with, but the most serious effects will come off the park.

Criticism of the board is in Celtic’s DNA, and while enjoying unprecedented success over the last decade and a half on the domestic front, flurries of discontent have still regularly appeared. This time, however, the dam appears to have burst. What characterises this season will be an outpouring of feeling from the fans.

Supporters of the club are organising, and already the opening salvo has been fired, with an uncompromising, but reasonable set of questions published and signed by dozens of fan organisations and media outlets and hundreds of supporters clubs. It is a level of criticism not seen since the early-1990s—and that must set alarm bells ringing in the boardroom. As things stand, they have still to be addressed. This was followed shortly after by unprecedented votes of no confidence in the board from fans' organisations.

Repeated failures

The failure of this summer—not only to strengthen the team, but even just to keep it at its current level—will have repercussions far beyond a season in Europe’s second competition and the fight Celtic have on their hands to retain the league title. Rather than an overblown reaction to poor transfer dealings and a tough result in Europe, what we are witnessing is the long-awaited response to issues which have been building for years.

The club clearly fails to meet supporters’ expectations with communication and the fans who pour their money into the club have been left dealing in rumour and analysing the situation with incomplete evidence. No-one really knows what is going on inside the walls of Celtic Park, so while the board have succeeded in what must clearly be an aim to direct the future of Celtic in privacy, they have left themselves a bigger problem by doing so.

Fans starved of insight are understandably defaulting to those elements which are known and quantifiable—repeated transfer window failures, five failed Champions League qualifying campaigns in a row, broken promises on supporter engagement and hoarded wealth amongst others. They don’t make for good reading. Supporters are right to challenge them.

By working behind a veil and electing not to clearly communicate strategy to supporter—limiting them instead to insubstantial and insufficient interactions at AGMs or private meetings with select representatives—the Celtic hierarchy have set themselves apart and made themselves the target for the support.

A season of discontent?

What will follow won’t be for the faint of heart, and a messy season of conflict and recrimination could all too easily be the result. Supporters, of course, will remain dedicated in backing their side in the league campaign and will be aware that support is needed from the stands to avoid discontent developing into on-field calamity.

With an unbeaten start to the season, Celtic occupy their usual slot at the top of the standings, but the side this year is undoubtedly weaker than last and there has been investment across the board from other Scottish clubs, with Hearts, Hibs and even Celtic’s city rivals—on paper, the poor relations—dipping into fresh funds and strengthening their squads.

In the East End, meanwhile, supporters are watching in disbelief as the usual party line starts to seep out through tired old channels—it’s a hard sell bringing talent to Glasgow, we worked around the clock, it’s difficult to get deals done without guaranteed Champions League football, we are constantly looking to improve the squad... and the band played ‘Believe It If You Like.’

What will surely be at the back of the Celtic board’s minds as the atmosphere starts to become more than a little uncomfortable for them on match-days is that all this could have been avoided. Celtic supporters are used to feeling detached from and dismissed by the club hierarchy. It's a familiar position to be in, and with good players on the park and trophies in the cabinet, Celtic fans have a long record of just getting on with it.

Had a few more moderate successes been achieved in the transfer window, and had Celtic managed to trouble a very ordinary Kairat Almaty enough to grab a single goal in 210 minutes of football, then what is now brewing would likely still only be grumbles.

Unfortunately for all concerned, these two failures were the straws that broke the camel’s back and the silence thus far from CEO Michael Nicholson has ensured there will be no quick fix. The grievances are out there. If they are ignored they will continue to fester. The fallout is now reaching far beyond what would normally be expected from an unacceptable transfer window or a failed Champions League qualifying campaign.

Everyone loses when it comes to an open conflict like this. Fans are already discussing ways to cut off money, and some are even suggesting non-attendance at matches or organised boycotts. This is as low as the relationship between club and fans has sunk in a very long time, and there are indications that both supporter solidarity and universal shared concerns are present. It is a very serious situation. Celtic must deliver a satisfactory response before things deteriorate further.