PETER LAWWELL has come under fire this week for his role in Celtic’s exits from the Champions League. The chief executive has overseen four exits over the past six years and it has been deemed not good enough by supporters.
However, the man himself is charging on with things and this week has been appointed by the European Club Association to sit on Uefa’s Professional Football Strategy Council which will be tasked with shaping the format of the competition over the next four years.
Celtic’s chief joins some elite company in Edwin van der Sar (Ajax), Pedro Lopez (Real Madrid) and Raul Sanlleh (Arsenal). The men have been appointed to help radically reshape the Champions League, Europa League and a much talked about third competition.
Celtic and Ajax could play a role in their clubs not having to go a mind-melting amount of qualifiers to get to the tournament in future. However, there is so much push back from the elite who want to see the competition become a closed shop among the cash-rich clubs, leaving so many historically significant clubs out in the cold.
Right now, Celtic have to look at themselves and can’t argue from a point of power after succumbing to a defeat to Cluj in the Champions League qualifiers. It’s hard to argue you deserve to be there when you capitulate in the third qualifying round.
You have to imagine having Peter on the panel will help, but who knows.
Should we have stopped after it said “Peter on the panel ” ?