Celtic Diary Wednesday September 4

The Unseen Fenian Hand became a little bit more visible yesterday when Peter Lawwell joined the main board of the SFA. He joins Stewart Regan, Campbell Ogilvie, Alan MacRae, Rod Petrie and Barrie Jackson

Lawwell said: “Clearly I am pleased to accept this nomination.

“Whilst there are certain challenges facing the game in Scotland, there is also a great deal to be positive about and much to look forward to.

“We must build on these positives and along with other Board members I look forward to playing my part in working to improve and develop various aspects of the game, for the benefit of Scottish football as a whole”.

He made a decent start , as well-as the Record explains..

” DUNDEE UNITED defender Gavin Gunning faces a three-match suspension after being accused of kicking Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk.

Gunning has been issued with a notice of complaint from Scottish Football Association compliance officer Vincent Lunny over an incident during his side’s 1-0 Scottish Premiership defeat on Saturday.

The charge accuses Gunning of “violent conduct by kicking or attempting to kick an opposing player, namely Virgil Van Dijk”.

Lawwell then  submitted plans for his new office, and attempted to quell any fears that he might try to dominate the association.

Long time contributor to the diary Billy McBiggott , of Larkhall, got in touch to register his disapproval;

” Thats it all out in the open ! I’m disgusted ! The bigots are running the show now . It’ll ruin the game in Scotland . He’ll just use his influence to destroy Rangers. Something needs to be done about it. ”

So, with his club dead, the carcass being savaged by vultures and the fans being ripped of by the spivs, now they finally decide to do something. If its not raining, presumably.

So, either football is beginning to clean itself up, and become much more open and accessible to the fans, or Lawwell will asume a dictatorial position which will end up with fans being banned from the grounds as an inconvenience, depending on how you look at the man.

Does it mean that Campbell Ogilivie is being moved out ? One thing that is noticable is that Lawwell wasn’t elected, he was appointed, which means that the circle will always be closed, and true transparency is still a long , long way away. Still, if you want to change anything, you have to do it from the inside, and take these people on at their own game.

Celtic will have to play any Champions League qualifiers away from Celtic Park next year, should the hoops fail to win the tournament and qualify for the group stages automatically. Plans are already being made for this, and with Hampden being used for the commonwealth games, Murrayfield in Edinburgh has emerged as the only suitable candidate to host the second and third round matches. Celtic Park should be ready for the play off round, but the earlier games need to be moved.

Ibrox was also considered, but is expected to be under new development by then, which will significantly reduce the capacity.

On the bright side, though, it looks like there will be plenty of parking.

Its all because Celtic Park is hosting the opening ceremony on the 23rd of July 2014, and groundstaff reckon it will take a few weeks to get it back to a playable condition.

A Glasgow 2014 spokesman said: “Glasgow 2014 is committed to returning Celtic Park to its pre-Games state as part of the Venue Use Agreement.

“Glasgow 2014 is developing contingency provision for an alternative venue for the fulfilment of the club’s competitive 2014 fixtures that are scheduled to be played at Celtic Park during the period of the organising committee’s use of the venue should that be required.” , which showed he was all growed up and able to use big words.

Meanwhile, back at Celtic, a new sponsorship deal with Phoenix honda was announced yesterday, and Derk Boerrigter took the opportunity to tell us all how he would help to beat his old club Ajax, and secure, according to media experts, third place in the Group of Champions;

“I can help the manager prepare for the Ajax games,” said Boerrigter. “I played there for two years and I know everything about the team and the players. I know how they play, who takes the free kicks, everything. I will speak to the manager and give him the information he needs. We want to win the games, so I will tell him everything.

“Ajax have just lost a couple of important players. Christian Eriksen is an excellent player, very skilful. He’s a top midfielder who can score goals and provide assists. So they’ve lost quality in midfield.

“They also sold Toby Alderweireld, who is a good defender, so that’s quality gone from the back-line and I think a young player will take over from him.

“They are definitely weaker now than they were at the start of the transfer window, of course. They’ve lost three good players including myself. So they’re weaker.

“They’ve bought Lerin Duarte from Heracles, who is the same type as Eriksen but we’ll see how he does because Ajax are a bigger club than Heracles. Bojan Krkic is on loan, who is also a very good player and used to play for Barcelona. And they’ve got the defender Mike Van Der Hoorn from Utrecht. He’s a big guy but it remains to be seen how they will do there.

“Am I surprised they let myself and the others go? Maybe they wanted the money to invest in new players, I don’t know. Eriksen only had one year left on his contract.

“At Ajax, they have a policy that if you have one year left, they either offer you a new deal or sell you. But they’ve obviously gone for the second option.

“Barcelona and AC Milan probably feel they will go through in our group, with Celtic and Ajax fighting for third. I don’t think that’s unfair, I understand it.

“They have a great record in the Champions League over the years – but we are Celtic, we’re a big club, and we’ll try to get as many points as we can to see how far we can go. I think we can go far. To survive in Europe beyond the group stage must be the target. We would prefer the Champions League, but the Europa League would also be okay.”

In that way that Dutch players often have, Boerrigter went on to stress that he didn’t have it in for Ajax boss Ronald de Boer ;

“I don’t feel I have anything to prove to De Boer,” he said. “I’ll just try to play my own game and be important for Celtic. I don’t want to annoy anybody whatsoever.

“In the beginning I had a very good relationship with him. I played every game. He couldn’t wait for me to get fit again after I got my back injury. But when I was fit again, I got another injury in my back. I broke a bone and it kept me out for a long time again. When I finally got back, I wasn’t that fit anymore. The speed I got wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t perform very well and it was a hard time for me.

“Of course, he needs to win games and if he has a player who doesn’t perform very well, he has to leave him out. It’s as easy as that. I don’t blame him. Sometimes, when I was fit again and thought I deserved to play, he didn’t put me in. Maybe then there were times when I thought ‘Come on, let me play’. But there are no hard feelings.”

What was that Shakespeare quote about protesting too much.

Boerrigter is fired up, not only for those games, but he seems to want to do well for Celtic.

Still on the upcoming UCL games, the firstof which is just a fortnight away, Brazilian veteran Kaka has rejoined Milan, and he should face Celtic in the San Siro in the opener. Someone who won’t though, is promising youngster Mbaye Niang, who they forgot to register..

THe Italian club have released a statement apologising for an error in the Champions League squad list which robbed Mbaye Niang of a place.

The Rossoneri included Stephan El Shaarawy in the A List of players, even though he is eligible for the B List.

That is reserved for players born after January 1 1992 with at least two years at the club.

Because of El Shaarawy’s placement, Niang was left out of the UEFA squad entirely.

This evening Milan released a statement from director Umberto Gandini, who took “full responsibility for the error” in putting together the Champions League squad.

It is now too late to change the list, so Niang remains ineligible.

Having to face Celtic again has obviously panicked them into a couple of rash moves-Kaka is not the player he was, and forgetting to register someone is just ridiculous at that level.

They are worried…

Well, probably not, but this group is not by any means a foregone conclusion. All four teams will take points off the other three. In fact, all of Celtics opponents are even capable of sneaking something at Celtic Park, just as we are of taking something from them when we go over to visit.

Cogatulations from all of us at Etims to long time reader and contributor Frank McGaaaaaarvey-apologies for the spelling-, who has had a wee addition to his family, and we wish him all the best.

Takes me back to the birth of my third and final son, when  we found out what was causing it, and put a stop to it immediately.

The first player to really attract the nickname of bombscare ( as illustrated in the picture ) -or at least have it publicly acknowledged by the other players- was Oliver Tebily. Although thanks to Jim Ward who reminded us of such luminaries as Pearse O’Leary and Willie Garner, and therefore depriving me of a few hours sleep last night.

Today, who does this make you think of..?

Clue, its not Roy Aitken, but think about reserve games..