Rafferty tells Celtic board: Don't fear the fans

The Association of Celtic Supporters’ Clubs insist the Parkhead board would have nothing to fear about co-opting a supporter on to the board.

Peter Rafferty, president of the ACSC, was disappointed at the club’s AGM on Friday when a motion put forward by the Celtic Trust, another fans’ organisation, to have some representation on the board was overwhelmingly rejected by 96.35% of the votes cast.

But Rafferty said: “We’ve had a lot of meetings with the Celtic Trust and we support the idea of some sort of fans’ representation on the board.

“The board shouldn’t be frightened. On a lot of occasions Celtic have been ahead of the times so hopefully it’s something that will happen in the future.

“It would be no bad thing and it wouldn’t hold the club back.

“The Trust have worked exceptionally hard to try and get a mandate for it, that is why they were set up so any board member would probably come from their organisation.

“There was no surprise that it was heavily defeated because of the block votes that were used against it but we’ve got to keep on trying.

“I can’t see why it shouldn’t happen, there’s a number of other clubs all over the country who have supporters on the board.”

Celtic’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond claimed the board was already made up of Hoops fans, but Rafferty insists there is a difference between board members and rank and file supporters.

He said: “I understand what they are saying but I believe there is a distinction.

“We’re talking about the concerns and views of the fans who travel on the coaches to games and things like that.

“There are fans who have other attributes that they can bring and I don’t see why a fans’ representative would not be more than capable of making an impact.

“We are not looking for power, just a voice to express concerns and views on a variety of different things.”