Our Annual General Meeting, held at Celtic Park this morning, was a more prosaic affair than last year’s. Chief executive, Peter Lawwell, told the meeting last season’s on-field and financial results were “fantastic” in difficult circumstances.
He repeatedly referred to the “balance” required between immediate expenditure policies and judging the long-term requirements of the club, adding that in recent years, “Rangers went bust, Hearts went bust, and Hibs were relegated.”
For the first time the AGM heard from the Celtic FC Foundation chief executive. Tony Hamilton was given a video slot alongside the chairman, chief exec and the manager and he spoke about how the Foundation was interwoven into the fabric of the club, from the top to bottom, and of our history.
The alleviation of poverty is a major target for 2015, building on work the Foundation carried out this year in north and east Glasgow, Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire. Tony added, “If things weren’t tough we wouldn’t need a charity – but they are.
“We’re deadly serious about making a difference.” I’ll try to get the video, it’s worth watching.
Ronny Deila laid out his objectives for this season: qualification for the Champions League, win the treble, develop players and play attacking, attractive, football. Peter Lawwell didn’t want to use the managerial transition over the summer as an excuse for failing to reach the Champions League, but suggested it was grounds for mitigation.
The chairman, chief executive and manager all liberally infused their comments with transformational effect Champions League qualification would have on the club next season.
The Celtic Trust proposed two resolutions, the first of which, concerning club-fan interaction, they agreed to adjourn. In his video message, chairman Ian Bankier informed the meeting that the directors would oppose the Living Wage resolution, but that they had entered into discussions with the staff on the matter, proposing that the starting pay for permanent staff is set at £7.85 per hour, which just happens to be equal to the Living Wage.
In response to this Jeanette Findlay, proposing the resolution on behalf of the Trust, reached the microphone and tore up her prepared speech. She did, however, urge the club to go the final mile and become an accredited Living Wage employer.
Peter Lawwell informed the meeting that he would be meeting John Guidetti’s agent within the next two weeks and that he is waiting to hear back from Kris Commons representatives on his latest offer.
Ronny Deila added that it was important for the club to retain its top players, giving Guidetti and Justin Denayer special mention, but insisted it was wrong to give into demands from any one player three times the going rate for other senior players.
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A few thanks ….
1. To those who have worked hard on Resolution 12.
2. Those who took the time to update those of us who couldn’t make the AGM today.
3. NegAnon2 – dont always agree with you (but, more often than not). I spend all days arguing with people, so come on to CQN as a bit of an escape. But, I agree that, as you and some of the others suggested today (MWD was one, I think) … The idea of Celtic is a noble one, and in practice, it should leave us and the world better. If it doesn’t, or doesn’t even aspire to, then it is just another football team… and I need it to be more than that, and believe that it is or can be
As I said, I spend my days fighting with people, so try to avoid it on here when I can. But I do appreciate you fighting the good fight on this one.
corruptiooptimipessimaCSC (not kissing any masons today)
philbhoy
14:34 on 21 November, 2014
Very funny !
Geordie Munro
15:04 on
21 November, 2014
I’m just a pedant really, and we know that PL hasn’t been getting paid £1M/year for 10 years and when I did it somebody had claimed he’d taken over £10M out which was patently not true.
Ian McLeod final year payment was £785k his previous year was £445k.
Peter Lawwell’s first year salary was £166k
Weeminger,
I know. I did the same in ma wee joke at St stivs accountancy skills ;)
Cheers for the info. Yerra top poster neebs.
67 Heaven
The official line is that it would mean that the Board was not 100% in control of it’s cost base and is therefore a bad thing.
Yup, that £1.50 an hour is gonna drive the budget forever and we’ll never be able to spend a thin dime on players… honest.
HH
f.a.b
any challenge on equal pay would be via tribunal and would be irrespective of Celtic recognising unions or otherwise.
Here’s a really, really boring thing I’ve just worked out.
Ian McLeod (former CEO) had a salary of £444 in 2002. If that had risen by 5% (perhaps unmerited in austere times but not shatteringly high) each year since then the salary would be around £800k.
Still a way short of PL’s current max salary but not as much as you might have thought.
I guess we do not know how much PL is in demand. Dermot Desmond thinks he is doing a great job so he is being reimbursed accordingly.
I know Arsenal were interested and would probably pay a fair bit more than Celtic and I’m sure he would be able to make their turnover higher and increase their profits.
LB
Surprised nobody has mentioned this articall by Lenny
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2841516/I-loved-Celtic-chaos-letter-bombs-just-wore-admits-Neil-Lennon-peace-Bolton.html
Bontybhoy
I have shares in Celtic. Surprisingly I don’t have shares in Primark. I can express a view in Celtic because I’m a shareholder. I cannot at Primark.
Celtic CAN AFFORD this NO PROBLEM. The Board take twice this on fees for the priviledge of being on the Board. If I was on the Board I would not take a penny in fees….
Brian Wilson Labour Co-op (no laughing) £25,000. Zero hours retail staff minimum wage.
Primark is nothing to me. I don’t even shop there.
Whilst we’re on 3rd world labour exploitation… who makes our jerseys and do they get paid £7.85 an hour? At £50 a whip for a top I would like them to. In fact, I feel some correspondence coming on about strip production.
But don’t worry, you sit back and snipe…
HH
F.A.B. Virgil 1903 v 1909 and 1888 v 2012
On the Living Wage, it has to be discussed with all employees before it can be implemented because not to do so could dissatisfy some of those longer term employees who are already at that wage having worked up to it over a number of years.
Say for example you started working for Celtic 10 years ago on £5 per hour and over the time you have now gone up to £7.85. Not a great pay increase I appreciate but you may then feel bad if newcomers come straight in and onto the same wage you have and justifiably you too would be asking for a pay rise.
It’s a difficult negotiation when taking all things into account.
In terms of why they are not seeking accreditation, I presume it could be down to the staff that are not directly employed by Celtic but work on a contract basis, e.g. through an agency to staff the food outlets. these are not Celtic employees but to be accredited as a living wage company, Celtic would have to put in place plans with the agency to pay their workers the living wage and the agency may not agree to this and in any case it is more expensive for Celtic. If the agency staff go onto the living wage then Celtic have to pay the agents probably an extra pound on top as their commission.
The important thing is that the club took on board fans views and are working to implement something that is clearly important to a vast number of people.
Mort
Can’t always make the games, but always love the club – even when it annoys the feck out of me.
Gene’s
Yes but a lot easier to undersand the issues, rights and possibilities if you’re being effectively advised which I suspect zero hours staff have a bit of a gap in…..
HH
With John Guidettis agent coming to talk with big Peter in the next fortnight or so it looks like we will get the first chance to make an offer to Guidetti I am not sure if that is good or not.However,Guidetti is 22 years old if we can secure him on a four year contract big Peter could sell him after 3 years for a big profit as he I would assume bag a lot of goals during the three years and he would only be 25 and a full Swedish International but we need to get the package right, H.H.
Mort
Accept that is a possible scenario. Perhaps Peter can call Mrs Budge who seemed to manage it without any fuss?
HH
Tet,
The article got a mention either yesterday or day previous.
Saint Stivs @ 14.55hrs.
“HE MAN”
——————————–
Stop shouting, don’t you know some on here like an afternoon nap.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Cunningham promoted. Sad, sad, sad.
F.A.B. Virgil 1903 v 1909 and 1888 v 2012
Perhaps being a much smaller operation and having made a lot of staff redundant when they went into administration, they were starting at a much lower base and able to implement this pretty quickly. Not sure if they have contract staff or not either.
Mort
Livibhoy,
After reading your post about the staff at hertz being paid with vouchers, I asked one of the hertz fans in work if he had heard of this…he denied any knowledge of it.
I know he posts on the hertz blog and asked him to enquire if any other hertz fans had heard of it.
Today I asked him if he had asked, his reply was a curt…”naw, why should I make a fool of myself for your benefit.”
To which I replied “why has your face went purple then, speaks volumes to me bud.”
Cheers for the info…huns, mini huns, I just love one upping them. HH
GM
Must have missed it then >}
………………………………………………………..
Res 12.
If the sfa decide tho lie again to the club, what can they do ?
The sfa know this.
The resolutioners have furnished the club with additional info, the club have said the process is ongoing, stalemate.
I can’t see the club going public.
HH
10 million a year not to play them is bargain!
sipsini
It was a pretty horrible thing for some of those guys in the bank sector he opened up. I heard about it through a mate and I was shocked that it happened. Didn;t really believe it myself and he said it was genuine and a few of his punters at work were buying them to help the guy in question out.
LB
I for one am quite happy at how Res 12 is going
I got involved in the smallest way, in the hope that I would help get answers in two ways.
1. to see if Celtic were complicit in the SFA actions regarding huns.
Turns out they were not and were on the case but had only had responses to questions based on certain information.(as I have been updated on this site by those involved ).
They are now awaiting along with the shareholders on a response from certain people who have asked much more detailed and backed up with proof questions thanks to many peoples input some from here who I am eternally grateful to.
2.So that the club could ask questions on behalf of share holders and the SMSM could not point the finger at the club and say “its a celtic grievence”, the club can say to those leveling accusations at them that they are legally bound to act on question asked by their share holders (Those were the biggest factors IMHO on shareholders signing the forms for Res12 to get Res12off the ground)
Do I know all the nitty gritty detail ? NO but for me I know enough to let it take its course in the hands of those that carry the fight to the SFA .
Do I think those taking the fight to the SFA are doing a good job YES and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their efforts .
livibhoy,
Ye, it couldn’t have been nice struggling like that, as some of us have experienced in the past, fair play to the blokes helping out.
You wouldn’t fancy getting a job where I work perchance, I could do with some hauners :))
You think Peter Lawwell doesn;t get frustrated that a club like Stoke City can attract better players, better sponsorship revenues, more corporate monies and not to forget a great TV deal which is probably twenty times more than we get?
Stoke City 2012/13
Income (£m)
Match Day 7.5
Media 46.2
Commercial 12.8
Total 66.5
Profit (Loss) (31.1)
It’s true that Stoke get phenomenal TV money, and it is unfair that Celtic get so little.
However: a couple of points:
Stoke have made a loss every year since the promotion season seven years ago. Billionaire owner Peter Coates has said this is no longer tolerable, and wages and transfer fees will both have to show a big fall this year. It remains to be seen if the club can manage its affairs as well as Celtic have, almost uniquely in Britain.
And “… a club like Stoke City”? If there’s one thing that rightly generates dislike, veering towards contempt, for our club it’s the attitude encapsulated in remarks like that. As a Stoke-born Celtic fan, and a Stoke fan too, I’ve grown up enduring such sneers from glory-hunters supporting Manchester United and Liverpool.
It was Stoke and 11 other “clubs like Stoke” from industrial towns in the north of England who invented professional league football. Stoke produced players that working men travelled miles and spent hard-earned money to watch – tens of thousands of good Celtic fans would go to Hampden after a hard week’s work or take time out from a few precious days’ leave to see Stanley Matthews.
“Clubs like Stoke City” are the brightest spot in the life of many honest, depressed provincial towns and cities in England, and Scotland too.
I am off up the A50 to see us v Burnley in a match destined for last place on MOTD tomorrow.
leftclicktic
Good post mate and I hope that those who are staying away from CP because they believed Celtic were complicit will no reconsider. Or maybe that was just an excuse…
HH
Up the Dubs
15:48 on
21 November, 2014
10 million a year not to play them is bargain!
===================
In a nutshell!
HH
Neganon
End of last blog.keep it rhere.
Read clearly.
HH
*will now reconsider…
HH
sipsini
I would be happy to mate if the dough is right. My wife looks like getting made redundant. More readies for us through my job
would certainly help us long term!
I assume you are over run with Jambo’s. Hahahahahaha
LB
Mort
Agree again that is a possibility. I know you are a great defender of the Board on here but frankly, it’s a small issue which any Company the size of our PLC should rountinely cope with. You’ll forgive my reticence which reflects the PLC stance to date.
HH
MWB
So to support your stance, you seem to be suggesting that you have no moral standards, your simply a Celtic fan wishing to uphold ‘Celtic values’ and that was my point. There is no room for moral equivocation. If you think there’s something noble about getting angry about a small company’s local employment policy and washing your hands of all the other commercial relationships you have which are already tarnished, then you’re simply wrong. You don’t deserve to have your views heard.
F.A.B.
You make a good point about the shirts, if we’re getting shirty about living wage, then we must investigate the shirts manufacturers, not to mention every other commercial relationship the club has. Can we be an ethical club? It’s a very noble idea.
What’s happening on here isn’t a realistic discussion of such a concept, it’s a very one-sided, myopic attempt to bash PL and the board to serve pre-existing agendas. I could care less when this is done with poppies or the ex club, or resolutions and songs (they’re minority concerns), but it’s utterly egregious, disgusting, when those same people use a serious social issue to play the same game.
And Primark? Glad you don’t shop there, neither do I. But that wasn’t really the point. You do use an electronic device? Maybe a smartphone… there are many more articles about the working conditions Apple consumers tacitly approve than the living wage concerns of Celtic employees. But then if you don’t use Apple my point is moot… by the logic I’ve encountered so far.
Generally this level of complacency in debate makes me nauceous, but on a football blog (about the club I support) it seems very ugly indeed.
Living wage is a discussion point, a valid one. But not a stick to beat the board, nor the cause you want to nail your socialist colours to.
BontyBhoy
I think you have given everyone some food for thought today with your approach. Some very valid points well made.
LB
deliasmith
well said re Stoke
up the vale
livibhoy,
Just the two jambos, must admit though, they rarely miss a game home or away.
As for zombies, it’s like a scene from the walking dead in there:))
Sorry to hear about your mrs job, hopefully it won’t be for long.
I’ve got a bit of reading back to do now, hope I come upon some good news. Hail Hail
Well done to all those involved in and supporting resolution12 .
Great work.keep working.
On the living wage I am touch sad the resolution failed for all.
However I am heartened that our club is adapting for some while lookin at a staged/phased analysis for the rest.i do hope it goes onto becoming part of our tradition in time..
HH
LB,
I think you were being kind there, and for some reason it makes me feel like more of a a’hole than all the abuse I normally get on here… promise I’m not trying to preach, it was an honest reaction to what I’d read.
thanks though.