Scottish Catholic Observer

Earlier this month Celtic Football Club celebrated its 128th anniversary, who would’ve believed the club you’ve known for all these years, that your parents, grand-parents and even great grand-parents knew would still be going strong. While being an institution of sporting quality this football club still manages to exist in the hearts and imaginations of the community for which it was founded. That is why nearly 10,000 Celtic supporters including shareholders made their voices heard when the club’s reason for being was disregarded by board member Baron Livingston of Parkhead who voted in favour of cutting tax credits. Did Lord Livingston consider how many of the club’s working class support benefit from tax credits? Would they still manage to purchase match tickets, replica shirts and Celtic related memorabilia had that extra support been taken from them over-night?

Supporters called for the Tory peer to be sacked arguing that his political stance is against the ‘ethos’ of the club. At the club’s AGM meeting last week shareholder Jim Mulligan represented the lion’s share of Celtic’s fans when speaking out on the reappointment of Ian Livingston describing him as a man ‘whose job was to impoverish thousands of fellow citizens.’ Celtic Chairman Ian Bankier seems to have made a grave error when he, in an attempt to grandstand, accused the campaign against Lord Livingston as ‘criminally racist.’ He also  suggested there had been a ‘torrent of base personal abuse.’ This has led many well established Celtic social media websites to ask: Who were the abusers, what did they say and why did Mr Bankier not report them to the police?

This is a grim accusation and fans are now keen for the details to be disclosed. To this observer the campaign has been fronted by decent Celtic supporters who had no interest or knowledge of Lord Livingston’s ethnic or religious background nor did they wish to abuse him in this way. If anyone has they should be brought to justice. That is why many are now writing to the club to ask for proof as Mr Bankier originally suggested there had been ‘quite a few cases’ in reference to the racist abuse. What Celtic fans took issue with was the fact that Lord Livingston didn’t need to cast a vote that would pull the rug from under the feet of the most poorest and vulnerable members of our society.

Stuart Braithwaite of Parkhead favourites Mogwai said: “I would think after his bizarre outburst today that Ian Bankier’s position at Celtic FC is untenable.” Many fans were further disappointed with a patronising statement by the club aimed at trying to recover ground with the well-worn ‘best fans in the world’ line. Mr Bankier also said it was ‘shocking’ that the fan movement summoned the legacy of Brother Walfrid to underline their point. This was a wilful misreading of, what has been in the mainstream, a worthwhile campaign in the name of the club’s founder. These Celtic board members have publically shown their inability to understand the club’s greatest asset—a football club created to assist and help the poor.

Willie Haughey was a board member during the Fergus McCann era, while he recently admitted that Celtic no longer has the European pedigree as the best team in the world it has continued to enjoy a unique position in global football. “It’s very difficult now to be a world class football club, but it is possible to have a world-class reputation,” he said. In the eyes of the football world that reputation has been tarnished by the behaviour of some Celtic board members.

The club also made its position clear on the living wage saying it was not in the interests of the club for the second year in a row. Labour MSP James Kelly made his feelings clear prior to the AGM meeting.

“It’s high time Celtic remembered its origins and became an accredited living wage employer,” he said. “Tomorrow presents the board with this opportunity which I hope they grasp.”

Celtic accused the season book holder of making the statement for ‘his own political purposes.’ It seems more likely that Mr Kelly cares about the ethics of a team he has an emotional and life-long connection to rather than trying to pull a cheap publicity stunt. Celtic are a club in danger of losing their populist and international appeal, they are alienating the fans that have always been the club’s life-force. Celtic choosing to become a living wage employer could have been a powerful symbolic gesture enhancing the club’s standing and cultural capital. Instead the board have scored another embarrassing own goal. Many of us are now left to ponder, whatever happened to the Celtic way?

—Richard Purden is a freelance journalist, author of We are Celtic Supporters, an SCO feature writer and a married father of two. Another of his books, Faithful Through and Through has been released in paperback form with new and updated chapters, now titled Celtic: Keeping The Faith