TREADING THE BOARD

CELTIC'S annual general meeting is often a gloriously curious affair.

- KEITH JACKSON

Over the years this summit with the shareholders has become the perfect pre-Christmas pantomime.

For more than a decade, the Parkhead hierarchy have been trotted out behind the top table to reflect on another 12 months in which the cash has been flowing into the bank account as quickly as the silverware clogging up the trophy cabinet.

But despite this unparalleled success story, they spend the next hour or so having verbal custard pies thrown at them by the boo-hiss brigade.

They would queue up to ask about the financial affairs of their closest rivals, even if they could not quite bring themselves to mention them by name.

And if it wasn't for questions from the Sevcoholics, the board would have to answer for the state of the matchday pies.

The topics may have changed over time. There was only one mention of the "tribute act from across the city" yesterday and one reference to the "five-way agreement", which was made by a man so angry he has apparently lost the ability to blink.

But the simmering sense of in-house hostility is never too far from the surface regardless.

Yesterday was Peter Lawwell's first as chairman after 18 years in a previous incarnation as chief executive.

Yes, he couldn't resist cracking one or two jokes at the expense of Rangers, having learned how to read the room over these past two decades.

But for the most part, Lawwell and his execs found themselves attempting to defuse the ticking time bomb brought about by an increasingly rancorous split between the boardroom and the Green Brigade.