Martin O’Neill has made an earnest appeal to Celtic fans, urging them to halt their aggressive behavior towards the club’s board. He emphasized that such actions have fostered a climate of ‘intimidation’ surrounding the club.
This season, Celtic has been plagued by off-field protests and fan discontent, with the latest demonstration taking place on Sunday before their 3-1 victory over Aberdeen.
Peter Lawwell recently announced his decision to resign as chairman at the end of the year, citing ‘intolerable abuse and threats’ directed at him and his family as significant reasons for his departure.
O’Neill, who took on the role of interim manager before Wilfried Nancy’s appointment, highlighted the chaos that erupted during the club’s annual general meeting, which was abandoned a few weeks ago.
The Parkhead legend believes it’s imperative to establish some form of reconciliation if the club hopes to navigate through the challenges overshadowing their season.
Martin O’Neill returned to Celtic as interim manager and helped calm things down to a degree before he left – but has appealed for peace to break out between the board and fans
There were more fan protests outside of Celtic Park on Sunday before the win over Aberdeen
During an interview on talkSPORT, O’Neill remarked, “I attended an AGM a few weeks back that turned into chaos, which is truly unfortunate. Celtic Football Club has enjoyed unity for a long time, perhaps dating back to the era of Jock Stein or even before.”
‘There was an intimidation at Celtic Park, because the crowd forced that, and this discourse between board and supporters will have to end at some stage.
‘This might really upset a lot of Celtic fans in this sense that there has been great success over the last 20-odd years, 38 trophies.
‘Sometimes you can have a dip, it happens and it happened to Celtic before then. In the 90s, I think they won maybe three trophies in 10 years or whatever the case may be.
‘Celtic will come again but Celtic will come more quickly, if there is a sort of a spirit there, a togetherness, and that has got to come.’
The protests started back in the summer when Celtic were dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers by Kazakh minnows Kairat Almaty.
The failure to strengthen the playing squad led to a fractured relationship with Brendan Rodgers and the club’s board before he departed the club in late October.
At the Celtic AGM a few weeks ago, Lawwell told angry supporters and shareholders to ‘behave’ before the meeting was abandoned due to protests.
Peter Lawwell will step down as chairman before the New Year and he blamed some of the abuse he was receiving from sections of the Celtic support
On the abuse suffered by Lawwell, O’Neill continued: ‘You can be frustrated as a football fan, you can, but please, taking it out in the manner in which they’ve done, as Peter mentions, the abuse is ‘intolerable’, and it is strong.
‘When it gets to your family, listen, you’ve got to stop, you’ve got to really, really stop and think about this here.’
After four straight defeats, Nancy finally claimed his first victory as Celtic manager courtesy of a 3-1 win over Aberdeen on Sunday.
It eases some of the pressure that had built on the Frenchman even so early in his tenure, with games to come against Livingston, Motherwell and Rangers over the festive period.
‘Big win, big, big win,’ said O’Neill. ‘It’s really important. When you’re not winning football matches, it doesn’t matter what club you’re at, pressure mounts on you.
‘This was an enormous win, to get a couple of late goals as well. They deserved to win the game, but Aberdeen with 10 men, if they’d held on for a draw, that would have been pretty poor news.
‘But they deserved to win and they got the late goals – well done them.’
