They arrived not in temper, not to shout but to pay homage.
The mood at Celtic’s AGM was congratulatory yesterday morning as the Celtic board effectively enjoyed the fruits of June’s labour; it really was all about the Brendan Rodgers show.
“The proudest moment of my career,” was how Chairman Ian Bankier reflected on that summer day when Rodgers was formally unveiled in front of 13,000 supporters at Celtic Park.
It was indicative of the mood that Lord Livingston, the Tory peer whose re-election to the Celtic board this time last year caused great acrimony within the Hoops support, went by with barely a murmur.
There was no rancour, no fights about the living wage and no latent frustration at results on the pitch.
The Celtic manager was an eager participant – at one point even disclosing the lengths he has gone to in order to bring the Celtic ladies team under the football department’s umbrella – as he chuckled and laughed with those shareholders who nearly all began questions by first voicing their thanks to Rodgers for pitching up in Glasgow.
The Northern Irishman wasn’t averse to cracking the jokes, either. Asked at one point by Bankier, what the difference was between a job at Celtic and one in the Premier League, Rodgers quipped, “well, the money’s different.”
The laughs continued with one expressionless septuagenarian taking and holding the floor. With the timing and delivery that wouldn’t be out of place on the stand-up comedy circuit, he had both board and shareholders chuckling gleefully as he took a satirical look at Scottish football’s handling of the Rangers crisis.
“Like Andy Murray, I’ve always wanted to be No.1,” he quipped as he took his place at the microphone marked with that number. “May I call you Brendan?” he asked Rodgers, who replied in the affirmative. “You can call me Arthur. That’s not my real name. It’s just that I don’t want HMRC to know that I’ve been receiving EBTs.”
To Peter Lawwell he said: “May I call you Peter? You can call me Paul. For the same reason Brendan calls me Arthur.”
The guffawing tone was eagerly lapped up by both and audience and a board who were considerably more comfortable in one another’s company than they have been for a while, largely due to where the club are off the park but also perhaps in part to the fact that a resolution has been formalised to have more fan power on the board.
The club will create a Celtic Supporters Forum at boardroom level, something they believe is a first in Scottish football.
As has been seen time and time again at such meetings, if you are competing in the Champions League and are putting all before you to the sword domestically on the park, everything else follows off it.
Chief executive Lawwell was relaxed throughout the two-hour meeting and endeavoured to continue his backing of Rodgers as the club move towards the January transfer window. “We are very well placed,” he said in a short video shown to shareholders. “The strategy will remain the same. We have to create value, we have to build and create Champions League players, and everything we do is centred around that.
“We will continue to invest in intellectual capital and where financial capital is limited we must be cleverer than everyone else in terms of player recruitment, our coaching and our sports science and we will continue to do that.
“We have a very strong financial foundation to take the club forward and that’s the result of what we have done over the years.
“We have a fantastically equipped club and we have great infrastructure and we have to keep progressing and progressing and that’s what everyone is focused on here. Getting better and better in everything we do is what we are all focused on to optimise the potential of this magnificent football club.”
Meanwhile, Lawwell has also warned that the landscape of European football will change, with the top clubs clamouring for an alternative structure.
Lawwell will seek to maintain Celtic’s influence and protect the club’s involvement on the Continent, hinting again that there could be some form of cross-border competition.
“There will be change, whether that’s to the Champions League, a European League, an expanded European League, an Atlantic League,” he said.
“We’re in a good seat to be an influence. There’s a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction at European level pointing to some form of elite competition, and clubs from the second tier who want to part of that.
“There were changes in the Champions League format which have been favourable to the elite, but we maintained the champions route.
“There is nothing definitive, but there is a movement towards change at the top, middle and bottom tiers of European football.
“Where there’s dissatisfaction, you’d think that would lead to change. We’re well-placed to be involved in discussions.”
The one grumble that has been steadfast at Celtic’s AGM is Resolution 12. It was raised again with Bankier saying: “We continue to meet with shareholders representatives on resolution 12. We understand they have received communication from Uefa on the issue and we will meet with the shareholders next week to understand that communication and how they are moving forward.”
The issue was first raised by requisitioners who claimed the club had potentially lost out on millions of pounds of Champions League revenue they could have earned had they gained entry to the qualifying rounds of the competition instead of Rangers in 2011. The Ibrox club received a Uefa club licence that year despite having an outstanding £2.8 million payment due to HMRC over their use of a discounted option scheme, commonly referred to as ‘the wee tax case’.
It was the only mumble of discontent.
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