Questions are always the same, just the answers change
Is the club safe with Sir David, Dave King and Paul Murray? Is Craig Whyte a worthy successor? Is Charles Green trustworthy? Is Ally McCoist a great manager? For the PR hired hands at Ibrox, the questions were always the same, it was just the answers that changed.
Few have the gall to deliver the PR messages which flow out of Ibrox, and that group of clubs have depended on PR spin for decades. Short of the communication of formal issues, like Annual Accounts and sensitive Stock Market issues, Celtic don’t utilise external PR services.
Celtic have in-house PR to facilitate media inquiries and the output of club message, but there’s no perceived need to bring in an external spin doctor to reframe reality. This is the way it should be, of course, you’ll never win a battle in the gutter with a guttersnipe, but there are costs.
We have had paid professionals successfully briefing against our club for decades, millions of people read and listen to these messages daily. This is a battle we will never win but the consequences for a football club trying to go about their business in an orderly manner are significant. The club, its directors, manager, players and supporters are variously painted as money-obsessed, anger-filled, flops and a rabble who hate the country their forefathers fought for.
We don’t indulge in PR excesses because Celtic have nothing to spin. They pay the taxes required to support their nation’s services, run an orderly business and are a remarkably well-respected and successful collection of fans, players, coaches and administrators. There are always unpopular decisions but the club face them down.
An eagle-eyed reader noticed an interesting aggregation in the two schools in Malawi we are assisting. Saturday’s article noted the pupil numbers at Kholoni Primary School in Mchinji as 1221 and St Josephs’ Primary School in Kasungu as 746. Go on, add the figures and see how many pupils will benefit from Celtic fans building kitchens. The spirit of ’67 is alive and kicking.
If you are driving to, or being driven to, CQteN on Friday, don’t think you can just nip along London Road and into Celtic Park. There is no access to the stadium from London Road. Access is via Janefield St, which, if you are coming from the east, means driving underneath the stadium. Make sure your taxi driver is aware.
There was a tremendous response to the whisky auction, which closes on Friday at noon, the current highest bid stands at £225. We have bottle No. 1 of a limited edition (291 in total) Craigallachie Telford’s Bridge, in a wooden box and presentation cardboard tube, whit an authentication certificate.
Bids are by email only to auction@celticquicknews.co.uk. This is a rare and valuable bottle. Shipping within UK and Ireland is included. Please include contact details and your bid amount.
Many thanks for all the kind wishes to the family yesterday, they were enormously appreciated.
Seville, The Celtic Movement, launches on Friday! Copies have landed and I hear…. it’s pretty decent.
“We are in the Estadio Do Besso on the 24th April 2003. We are far into the 78th minute of the 2nd leg of a UEFA Cup Semi-Final. The first leg in Glasgow, a fortnight earlier had seen Celtic obtain a 1:1 draw with Boavista, a relative minnow in Portuguese terms who had won their first ever top league title in season 2000/01, having only been 2nd on 2 previous occasions in their history.”
Order yours below:
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