Macari loses legal battle against Celtic
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image: [ Macari: out of pocket and out of work ]
Macari: out of pocket and out of work
Former Celtic manager Lou Macari faces a massive legal bill after failing to convince a judge that he was wrongly sacked in 1994.
The “amiable but not particularly astute” Macari was ruled by the presiding judge, Lady Cosgrove, to have been in breach of his contract with the Glasgow club, and his claim for more than £400,000 damages was rejected.
But she also rejected a counter-claim by Celtic, which sought to recover some of the £250,000 it paid to Macari’s former club Stoke City when it recruited him to Parkhead in 1993.
Her 80-page judgement follows eight weeks of courtroom evidence last year at the Court of Session in Edinburgh and places both Macari and Celtic managing director Fergus McCann in an unfavourable light.
Macari, a former Manchester United and Scotland player, was said to have failed to appreciate the change to the regime brought about when McCann became managing director in 1994.
He was sacked shortly afterwards on 14 June and launched his legal action later the same year.
But Lady Cosgrove also found McCann was an “uncompromising and somewhat arrogant employer who expected unquestioning compliance”.
On Thursday it was not clear if Celtic would seek to recoup any of its costs from Macari but he himself confirmed he was considering an appeal.
“Obviously I am hugely disappointed at the outcome,” said Macari, 48, who gave up his manager’s job at Stoke City last year to focus on the legal battle with Celtic.
“I will be meeting my legal representatives to study the findings to see if there are any grounds for an appeal.
“To be honest, I can’t believe it. Celtic didn’t win their case against me, and I didn’t win my case against them.
“It sounds good to say it’s a draw, but to me, of course, it’s not a draw.”
In a brief statement the club said: “Celtic is very pleased with the judgement which was as expected.”
Macari goes ahead with case against Celtic
The Scotsman 17/02/1997
MARTIN HANNAN
CELTIC Football Club and its former manager, Lou Macari, will contest a near million pound court case starting in Edinburgh tomorrow.
The Celtic chairman, Fergus McCann, and his board face a claim for £431,000 for alleged breach of contract from Macari, a former Celtic player, who was sacked in June 1994.
In return Celtic are claiming a sum of around £250,000 in damages from Macari, now the manager of Stoke City, for alleged mismanagement of the team during his eight months as Celtic’s manager.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh has set aside a month for the proof – a civil hearing in front of a judge – and a legal expert estimated the costs of the action at “upwards of £250,000”.
Witnesses are expected to include top Celtic personnel and former directors of the club, as well as Celtic players past and present. Also likely to be called are several expert witnesses testifying in Macari’s favour, including at least one serving team manager.
The witnesses will include some of the central figures involved in the lengthy and stormy takeover battle for Celtic in the early 1990s, which ended with Mr McCann buying over the club from its then shareholders.
Mr McCann has since successfully improved Celtic’s finances, and the club won its first trophy for six years with the 1995 Scottish Cup.
After a successful public flotation, Celtic is reckoned to have the largest capitalisation of any British football club.
One of the major issues in the court case is likely to be Macari’s trip to the US in 1994, during which he claims he found out about his sacking from the press. The club are expected to raise the issue of his family not moving from his former home in Stoke.
Appearing for Mr Macari, the former Celtic and Manchester United player capped 24 times for Scotland, will be senior counsel, Colin Boyd, QC, along with junior counsel, Leonard Wallace.
Neither Mr Macari nor his solicitor, James Keegan, would make any comment yesterday. Although there was no reply to The Scotsman’s calls to Celtic last night, the club have made known their determination to contest Mr Macari’s claims.
Macari ‘warned over absences’
The Scotsman 19/02/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
FORMER Celtic manager Lou Macari was sent a letter warning him about his poor attendance record before he was sacked, a court heard yesterday.
Fergus McCann, the club’s managing director, told a judge: “I became very worried that he was not available on a regular basis. He was either away supposedly scouting or perhaps had gone off home to Stoke.”
He was speaking at the Court of Session, Edinburgh where Mr Macari is claiming £431,000 damages for his sacking in 1994 with two years of his contract still to go.
Celtic says the dismissal, after only eight months in the £150,000-a-year job, was justified because Mr Macari had failed to perform his duties and breached his contract and is counter-claiming £250,000 -the compensation paid to Stoke City when he moved to Parkhead in October 1993. Since leaving Celtic, he has returned to Stoke as manager.
The court was told that Mr Macari had been given the manager’s post before Mr McCann took control at Celtic Park. Mr McCann denied any predisposition to see the former Celtic and Scotland player out the door. “I had not appointed him but I certainly wanted to give him every opportunity to do the job well and every encouragement and every assistance in order to do so,” he said.
Senior players – Mr McCann could not remember precisely who, but thought they were Paul McStay, Pat Bonner, Charlie Nicholas and Peter Grant – complained they had little confidence in the manager.
Another concern had been that Mr Macari’s family home was still in Stoke. He rented a house near Glasgow but spent long spells away from Parkhead, Celtic’s ground.
Three weeks after taking control and with the authority of the board, Mr McCann sent Mr Macari a warning letter, stating that concern had been raised over his level of commitment.
The item of greatest concern had been Mr Macari’s failure to establish a home in the Glasgow area. He appeared on average to be spending only three days a week with the team.
“It was apparent he was not residing permanently in Scotland but was only visiting Scotland,” said Mr McCann. “We felt it was critical to the performance of his job that he make a full-time home in Glasgow. It seemed to me he was not paying attention to business.”
The letter had also referred to two waitresses from the club’s catering department being on the team bus during a trip to Ireland. The board, said Mr McCann, had been appalled to learn of the incident.
On another occasion, a player had been seen drinking alcohol from a can on the team bus returning from a match. Celtic players had a high public profile and that was not the sort of example they wanted to set.
Mr Macari had not been there and the letter had made it clear to the manager that it was up to him to provide supervision so there was no repeat.
Mr McCann said: “Football players, as one manager told me, do not do what they are asked … they do as they are told.”
The letter had constituted a written warning that failure by Mr Macari to remedy the issues raised would be deemed a breach of his contract.
“The purpose was to send Mr Macari a very strong signal that he must get his act together…. It was to try to get the manager straightened out about what was expected of him.”
The hearing continues.
McCann says Macari was sacked after letter insult
The Scotsman 20/02/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
A COURT heard yesterday how Lou Macari had been sacked as Celtic’s manager after he made a “barefaced” insult to the club and its managing director, Fergus McCann.
He was dismissed during a telephone call to Manchester Airport before flying to the World Cup in the US, a judge was told. The previous day, Mr Macari had faxed an “aggressive and impolite” letter to Mr McCann, demanding to be allowed to get on with his job without obstacles being put in his way.
Mr McCann told the Court of Session: “He was basically saying, ‘I’m not going to do anything you tell me, I’m going to do it my way and you can like it or lump it.’ I think this clearly is a barefaced insult to me personally and to the club as a whole.”
Mr Macari had been appointed manager before Mr McCann took control at Parkhead but the managing director denied orchestrating an elaborate campaign to have him removed from the post.
The former Celtic and Scotland player is claiming £431,000 damages over his sacking in June 1994. He had completed only eight months of a three-year contract.
Celtic says Mr Macari breached his contract and is counter-claiming £250,000 -the compensation Celtic paid Stoke City when he moved to Parkhead in October 1993.
In his evidence, Mr McCann complained of long spells when the manager was away from Celtic Park. He had failed to set up a permanent home in Glasgow and often went to Stoke to visit his family.
“I think Mr Macari felt a manager was a kind of freelance operator that could go from football match to football match without taking charge of the actual operation within a club. I was trying very hard for him to get the message – he had to do the job he was being paid to do.”
A letter had been written to Mr Macari on 10 June in a final attempt to get him to understand what was required of him. In his reply, which Mr McCann described as “aggressive and impolite”, Mr Macari had accused the managing director of having a total lack of knowledge and understanding of the role of a football team manager.
He had added: “I suggest that you let me get on with the job I was employed to do. Perhaps a period of reflection whilst I am away (at the World Cup) will assist you in seeing matters in a clearer perspective so that on my return you will see fit to allow me to get on with my task of rebuilding the team and coaching it to success without placing obstacles in my way.”
Mr McCann said the letter amounted to a complete rejection of his authority and that of the board of directors. It was an unacceptable attitude.
“The idea of being a free spirit that could come and go occasionally is not, by any definition, the role of a football manager of a major football club.
“It had become quite clear from the letter and the behaviour he was exhibiting that he was not interested in taking instructions or following directions from me.
“I am paying this man 150,000 a year to do a job and expecting him to do it well and part of that job is to follow directions.”
Without meeting any dissent from other board members, Mr McCann had sacked Mr Macari on the phone after tracking him down to Manchester Airport.
“We basically had reached an impossible stage. There was obviously nowhere to go. He was making no attempt to say, ‘Let’s sit down and see if we can work together.’ He really put me in a position of having to take action.”
Mr McCann said that although Celtic had failed that season to qualify for Europe for the first time in 20 years, the team’s performance and Mr Macari’s dismissal were not connected.
“I knew quite well that a lot of improvements had to be made and it was not an overnight task.”
The hearing continues.
Celtic chief grilled over claims
The Scotsman 21/02/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON
THE Celtic managing director, Fergus McCann, was grilled yesterday over his claim that senior players had expressed a lack of confidence in the club’s former manager, Lou Macari.
At the Court of Session, Mr McCann denied that after taking control at Celtic Park in March, 1994, he had failed to quash speculation about Mr Macari’s future in the hope that he would take the hint and quit.
In evidence to Lady Cosgrove, Mr McCann had said that senior players had complained that they had little confidence in Mr Macari. He could not remember who, but he thought they were Paul McStay, Pat Bonner, Charlie Nicholas and Peter Grant.
In cross-examination, Colin Boyd, QC, for Mr Macari, asked yesterday if the meeting ever took place. Mr McCann replied: “Yes, I did not make it up.”
Mr Boyd said: “Let me suggest that there was no meeting between you and the players at which they expressed lack of confidence.”
Mr McCann said: “I got that message loud and clear from the players.” He conceded that he could not be clear about the timing of the meeting or which players were involved.
Questioned about press reports that had speculated about Mr Macari’s future after Mr McCann took control at the club, the managing director said he had not allowed “a situation of insecurity” to hang over the manager. Had he not let that situation continue in the hope that Mr Macari would take the hint and take himself off? “Absolutely not.”
Mr McCann added: “I cannot recall saying, ‘You are going to be here for ever.’ But I am pretty sure I told him I was behind him and wanted to work with him.”
The manager’s contract had been raised at a board meeting soon after the takeover and Mr Boyd suggested a reasonable interpretation was that the raising of the issue had been in connection with the club’s obligations, were the contract to be terminated.
Mr McCann said: “That is not a reasonable assumption. I don’t remember any such connection being put forward. There was no intention to sack Mr Macari at that stage.”
The hearing continues.
McCann ditches Lou claim
Daily Record 26/02/1997
Celtic chairman Fergus McCann pulled out of a legal tackle with ex- boss Lou Macari yesterday to avoid naming names.
He had been challenged to identify a mystery man approached by the club BEFORE Tommy Burns was poached from Kilmarnock.
Macari is suing the club for pounds 431,000 over his sacking.
But the Court of Session heard because approaches were made in confidence Celtic wanted to delete a pounds 150,000 claim against Macari to avoid names.
Celtic’s pounds 250,000 counter-claim against Macari – the amount they paid Stoke in compensation to get him – still remains.
The hearing continues.
Celtic players ‘brought women back to hotel’
The Scotsman 27/02/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
A COURT heard yesterday how Celtic players had broken an unwritten rule of football by taking women back to the team’s hotel. The players had been left by the manager, Lou Macari, and returned with female friends after a night out on the town, a judge was told.
The former Celtic director, Tom Grant, recalled the incident during evidence at the Court of Session.
Mr Grant was questioned about the trip to Manchester a few weeks before Mr Macari’s sacking. Celtic had played Manchester United in a testimonial match for Mark Hughes, then a United player.
He said that after the game, the Celtic players had been left with what appeared to be little or no supervision. “A number of them, as players would do, took off into town to enjoy themselves.”
He had no problem with that, but he added: “I do not think they should be bringing that enjoyment back to the team’s hotel. I believe there is an unwritten rule of football that you do not bring your enjoyment back to the team’s hotel.”
He explained: “Some of the younger players in particular chose to bring some female friends back to the hotel.”
Colin Boyd, QC, for Mr Macari, asked if Mr Grant had drawn the matter to the manager’s attention. He replied: “No, he was not there to tell.”
Mr Grant accepted that he or other senior members of the Celtic party could have raised the issue with the players but had not done so.
He told Matthew Clarke, QC, for Celtic, that to his knowledge everyone in the party apart from Mr Macari had spent the night in the hotel. He had never been given any explanation for the manager’s absence.
Mr Clarke asked: “Had he let it been known before departing that he was not going to be resident in the hotel overnight and that you or somebody else would be responsible?”
Mr Grant replied: “No.”
The hearing continues.
Macari letter `gross insult’
Daily Record 28/02/1997
A faxed letter sent by ex-Celtic manager Lou Macari to new boss Fergus McCann was grossly insulting, a court heard yesterday.
Celtic club secretary Dominic Keane said McCann had written to Macari offering “an olive branch” just days before Macari’s dismissal in June 1994.
But Macari faxed a reply saying McCann “demonstrated a total lack of knowledge and understanding of the role of football manager”.
Keane told the Court of Session in Edinburgh: “I found it grossly insulting to Mr McCann who had come along with £1million of his money, saved the club and saved Mr Macari’s job as well.”
He denied that when the new board took over in March 1994, Fergus McCann was determined to sack Macari.
Up until the fax, he had believed a reconciliation was possible, adding: “I don’t believe for one minute Macari wanted that reconciliation.”
Fergus demands `made Lou laugh’
Daily Record 05/03/1997
TONY ELLIN
Former Celtic manager Lou Macari thought it was funny when he was asked to send reports to Fergus McCann.
The club’s operations manager George Douglas told the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday: “I think he found it amusing.”
He said that during a club tour of Canada, Macari asked: “What on earth does he want me to report?”
Celtic claim the manager disobeyed board instructions to report regularly to Fergus McCann. Macari alleges the managing director interfered in his job when there was nothing to tell him.
Soccer boss Lou in perks riddle
Daily Record 07/03/1997
Gordon McIlwraith
Soccer boss Lou Macari was receiving perks from Stoke while he was the £150,000 manager of Celtic.
During a three-month spell at Parkhead, the English club were paying the rent on his Potteries home, it was revealed yesterday.
They also provided him with a Mercedes car, the Court of Session heard.
But Stoke City secretary Michael Potts, 51, who revealed the information, said he did not know the reason for the arrangement during the spring of 1994.
The former Celtic favourite moved from Stoke to Parkhead in October, 1993, and was sacked eight months later.
Potts revealed that when Macari re-joined Stoke in September, 1994, he was paid £78,000 a year, which is still his salary. He also stands to earn £100,000 if the club is promoted to the premiership.
And he will get £500,000 if he keeps them in the top flight for three years.
Macari ‘lost the respect’ of player
The Scotsman 08/03/1997
DAVID FINLAY
THE Celtic footballer, Peter Grant, told a court yesterday that he had lost respect for Lou Macari before he was dismissed as the club’s manager.
Grant, 31, said the “final straw” for him came after a 4-2 defeat for Celtic in a New Year’s Day Old Firm clash at Parkhead in 1994 and the players did not see the manager until later the following week.
Grant’s ex-team mate, the goalkeeper, Pat Bonner, 36, told the court that Mr Macari was “not as thorough as some managers”.
Grant said: “The team I hate losing to most is Rangers. I felt as if we were embarrassed and humiliated that day. That was the final straw in my respect for him. I thought it was important he came in.”
As he gave evidence on the eleventh day of an action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh between Mr Macari and Celtic, the player said he felt that, in the midst of the boardroom upheavals at the club, the manager had failed to provide the support needed.
Grant, who has played under five managers during his 14-year career at Parkhead, said Mr Macari’s style of management during his eight months in charge of Celtic was different to the others.
Grant said that he had been out of the game for more than three months with a knee injury and said the manager only spoke to him a couple of times during the period. He returned to the team in an Old Firm match and the manager was quoted as saying he was surprised at how fit he was.
Grant said he felt that if the manager had taken the time to check on his fitness it would have come as no surprise. He agreed with Mr Macari’s counsel, Colin Boyd QC, that he was aggrieved at being left out for the next game, but did not necessarily think it was indicative of the manager’s future plans for him.
The case was adjourned.
Trial and tribulation as Macari quits
Scotland on Sunday 20/04/1997
By Sydney Barrett
LOU MACARI yesterday announced that he will quit as manager of Stoke City at the end of the season, blaming the pressure of his ongoing court battle with Celtic for his decision.
The former Scottish internationalist issued a statement on the eve of yesterday’s Potteries derby with Port Vale at the Victoria Ground after informing his chairman, Peter Coates, of his decision. He said: “It has taken a great deal of thought, but it is the only thing I can do. I have got to think of myself but also of how I can put the club first. I cannot serve Stoke City’s best interests as manager next season if I am in a court in Scotland.”
Macari spent three weeks in court in Edinburgh recently as Celtic opened their case against him for breach of contract during his eight months as Parkhead boss, prior to his dismissal in June 1994. The court action had already forced him to miss Stoke’s home match against Grimsby Town in March because he was giving evidence.
Macari’s counter-claim against the Glasgow club for wrongful dismissal should have gone ahead this summer but has been put back to September and is expected to last five weeks.
Club chairman Peter Coates said Macari informed him of his decision at a brief meeting on Friday. “I know he has been extremely concerned about the court case because the financial implications are very significant for him,” he said. “I have realised it has been causing him a lot of worry and anxiety. He has told me he feels he would find it difficult to be in charge at the start of next season.”
Mr Coates said the club would not be advertising for a new manager immediately. He added: “At the end of the season the board of directors will meet to review the situation.”
Macari talks of plot to get him fired
The Scotsman 01/10/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
A THUMPING victory against arch rivals Rangers would not cause Celtic’s managing director Fergus McCann to bat an eyelid, the club’s former manager and lifetime supporter, Lou Macari, claimed yesterday.
With a limited knowledge of football, Mr McCann’s driving ambition had been to put Celtic back on the rails financially after taking control in 1994, Mr Macari told a court.
“I got the feeling, rightly or wrongly, that if we went to Ibrox and won 4-0, it would not make the slightest difference to him,” Mr Macari said. “There wouldn’t be a reaction at all.”
Giving evidence at the Court of Session where he is claiming £431,000 after being sacked as manager, Mr Macari said that he received a warning letter from Mr McCann after the two men had spoken only twice.
“I asked him to stop sending me letters. I said: ‘I do not really need a penpal.'”
The case started in February and had been adjourned until yesterday when the judge, Lady Cosgrove, was told that Tommy Burns, who followed Mr Macari as manager and who has also lost the post, was being lined up as a witness for Mr Macari.
It was said that, since leaving Parkhead, Mr Burns had featured in newspaper articles and had said things that were “not altogether complimentary to Mr McCann”.
The court heard that Mr Macari enjoyed success as a player with Celtic, Manchester United and Scotland.
He said he had always been a Celtic supporter and was still a fan.
The “old” board, which appointed him, allowed him to get on with his job. “Everywhere I have been, that has been normal. It was certainly the case at Celtic when I was a player under Jock Stein. They would not dare interfere with him.”
Mr Macari said he had first met Mr McCann, who was in the court, the day after the takeover on 4 March 1994. The team was playing in Perth and the new managing director introduced himself in the dressing room.
“He briefly shook my hand on the way out. That was it,” said Mr Macari.
Their next encounter was some days later on staircase in Celtic Park. “I just happened to bump into him and he informed me that the players had no confidence in me and he turned and started to walk away,” Mr Macari said. “I asked him to explain what he meant and who he meant but I didn’t get an answer from him.”
Under the previous regime, Mr Macari had attended all board meetings. That stopped when Mr McCann took control.
Mr Macari said: “That tells its own story. I have heard of very few football managers that aren’t invited to board meetings unless … they are going to be kicked out the door.”
He received a warning latter from Mr McCann on 25 March, questioning his level of commitment. By then he had still spoken only twice to the man in charge.
“I was most annoyed and most upset. In my opinion, he was obviously looking to get me out of Celtic Park and looking for any reason at all to get me out. I felt the letter was the first part in the process.”
Mr Macari said his office and Mr McCann’s office were only yards apart.
“I asked him to stop sending me letters. I said: ‘I do not really need a penpal.’ He made the remark that there could be more letters on the way.”
Mr McCann then insisted on daily reports and Mr Macari said he could only think that it was a move to make life uncomfortable for him. He had no doubt that Mr McCann was trying to get rid of him.
The hearing continues.
Macari says he heard of sacking through a phone call on holiday
The Scotsman 02/10/1997
GILL SMITH
THE former Celtic manager, Lou Macari, said yesterday he first found out he had been sacked when a journalist phoned him while he was on holiday in the United States.
At the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Mr Macari revealed how Celtic’s chief executive, Fergus McCann, had objected to the holiday, and to his attendance at the World Cup finals of 1994.
Mr McCann had wanted him to fly back and forth to Scotland in between the matches he had planned to watch. On 10 June, four days before he was due to leave for the US, he spoke to Mr McCann.
“I had a discussion with Mr McCann about my holidays and that I was going away on the 14th and I was combining my holiday with the World Cup. He said ‘you can’t have a holiday, you’ve work to do here’.
“I told him I was going to the World Cup and on holiday. He then said ‘you can go to the World Cup and fly back and forwards after every game’. It was laughable.”
Mr Macari said that on the day he was flying to the United States he had phoned Mr McCann from Manchester airport to pass on a contact number.
He said: “I told him I was at Manchester airport and heading to America. He told me I couldn’t go to America. He indicated we’d have to part company. He didn’t say I was sacked.”
Mr Macari alleges that, after arriving at his father-in-law’s house in South Carolina, he was told Mr McCann had phoned his in-laws half an hour after the two men had spoken to ask if he had arrived yet.
A couple of days later his dismissal was announced to the press but he only found out when a member of the press called him in the US. Mr Macari said that, as a football manager, he expected to be allowed to do his job, while Mr McCann, whose knowledge of football was “nil”, would get on with his job.
But Mr Macari claimed Mr McCann did not let him get on with managing the team. He had been working on three deals, one involving Celtic player Simon Donnelly. But Mr McCann had refused to agree to Donnelly’s terms when he had recommended that the player’s contract be extended.
Mr Macari said: “It was like a slap in the face that I had made a decision that this player be given a longer contract and then that decision wasn’t being allowed to be carried out.” The case was adjourned until today.
McCann’s court evidence ‘was lies’
The Scotsman 08/10/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
FORMER Celtic manager Lou Macari yesterday accused the club’s managing director, Fergus McCann, of lying in the witness box at the Court of Session.
The two men have given different versions of a meeting in front of a lawyer shortly before Mr Macari’s sacking in June 1994.
In his evidence, Mr McCann, who had just taken control of the club, said the manager had undertaken to have a number of new players at Celtic Park before going to the World Cup in the United States.
The solicitor, David Semple, gave a similar account.
Yesterday, under cross-examination from Matthew Clarke, QC, counsel for Celtic, Mr Macari said he would not have discussed football matters such as the signing of players with a stranger, as Mr Semple had been.
Asked for his reaction to the lawyer’s evidence, Mr Macari replied: “I would have to say Mr Semple is lying.” And Mr McCann’s testimony on the matter? “I would have to say similar.”
Mr Clarke asked whether the managing director and the solicitor had also lied when they said that, at the same meeting, Mr Macari had undertaken to report daily to Mr McCann. “Yes,” said Mr Macari.
When it was suggested that Mr Macari was lying, not the other two witnesses, he answered: “I am afraid not.”
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One of the complaints made against Mr Macari was that he had failed to move his family home to Glasgow from Stoke and had spent much time travelling south to see his wife and children.
Mr Macari said a move north had been planned for his family but he believed that he had been capable of carrying out the Celtic job while his family continued to live in England.
“I don’t actually believe my wife could have any input into me helping Celtic be a top-class football club again,” he added.
The hearing continues.
Burns saw fate sealed in confidential letter
The Scotsman 15/10/1997
MARTIN HANNAN and JOHN ROBERTSON
THE long-running confrontations between Celtic’s managing director, Fergus McCann, and former manager Tommy Burns were revealed in detail in court yesterday.
The behind-the-scenes turmoil at Parkhead during Mr Burns’s two-and-a-half years as manager was laid bare during testimony by the former Scottish international footballer, once the darling of the Glasgow club’s fans.
Even as arch-rivals Rangers closed in on Celtic’s record of nine league wins in a row, there were clashes over a range of issues from the buying and selling of players to Mr Burns being criticised as too “intense and emotional” in a confidential letter, which the manager saw lying on Mr McCann’s desk.
Mr Burns told the court how a glance at the document had confirmed his suspicions that his contract would not be renewed. He had gone to Mr McCann’s office for a meeting, but the managing director was late. The document “just caught my eye. I glanced at it and saw my name and I read through some things,” said Mr Burns.
It was a letter to the club’s solicitors, which included a transcript of a board meeting at which Mr Burns had been discussed. He had been blamed for the club’s poor disciplinary record and criticised for being intense and emotional.
“My intensity was getting through to the players and making them unable to perform properly. It was saying my relationship with the managing director had never been right and it was possibly best for a change,” he said.
In the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday Mr Burns described the managing director as “not a football person”. He said Celtic under Mr McCann was “not being run the way a normal football club should be” and that the managing director’s main interest had been to maximise his investment in the club.
Mr McCann listened intently to the evidence of his former employee, who had been called as a witness in the case of another former manager, Lou Macari, who is suing Celtic for 431,000 over his dismissal in June 1994.
Mr Macari had been only eight months into a three-year contract. His sacking followed Mr McCann’s arrival. Celtic claims the sacking was justified because Mr Macari failed to perform his duties. In the same case, Celtic has counter-claimed 250,000, the compensation paid to Stoke City to get Mr Macari as manager.
Mr Burns, 40, now a coach with Newcastle United, replaced Mr Macari. Celtic was later fined a record 100,000 by the Scottish Football Association for illegally approaching him while he was manager at Kilmarnock. Mr Burns said his leaving of Kilmarnock could have been handled with more dignity. “I didn’t want to leave there with a lot of bad feeling, but that was the case.”
When he joined Celtic, the club was at its lowest level for a long time with many ordinary players and only three or four quality players. From the outset there were problems between the manager and Mr McCann.
Mr Burns said: “The first year was very difficult for both of us because we were under a great deal of pressure to turn the club round. But there were so many confrontations in the early weeks that, basically, we just drifted apart.”
There were problems over buying and selling players. Mr Burns said he had wanted to sell one player but Mr McCann disagreed. Mr Burns had been in a hurry to get results and needed to move quickly in the transfer market. “Mr McCann was always searching for a logic within that. Unfortunately, within football there is very little logic. When you are a manager and you want to get a player, you want him immediately.
“He wanted to negotiate the best deal for the club. I didn’t have any problems with that, but he had to understand the speed with which it had to be done. He wanted to do it in his own time and some of the time he wasn’t prepared to furnish me with the facts about exactly what was going on.”
Mr Burns added: “Mr McCann wasn’t a football person. He didn’t understand the psychology of the game. He didn’t like the emotion, the passion and the competitiveness.”
Mr Burns was invited to attend only two or three board meetings in his first season at Parkhead. Mr McCann had wanted Mr Burns to talk to him first and then he would decide whether an issue should be raised at board level. At Kilmarnock, Mr Burns had spoken to the board every week.
Asked about his performance as manager before he left in April this year, Mr Burns said he had done the best he could. He had suspected in January that his contract would not be renewed. The team had won nine out of 12 games but there was incessant press pressure because Rangers were heading for the record-equalling ninth championship in a row.
Mr Burns spoke to Mr McCann because he wanted to be able to ease the strain on the team by telling staff that they were going to get another couple of years to take the club forward.
However, Mr McCann was evasive and was “not for talking about that”.
Asked if he had left Parkhead voluntarily, Mr Burns said: “I spoke to Mr McCann and the directors and gave them my thoughts for the future. Mr McCann came back two days later and told me they would not be renewing my contract.”
He agreed with Matthew Clarke, QC, for Celtic, that he had been given more money to spend on players than any other manager at Parkhead, but added: “My need was greater than any other manager.”
It was “most definitely” the case that Mr McCann’s personal efforts and financial investment had contributed to an improvement in Celtic’s fortunes.
The hearing continues.
McCann ‘called Macari low life’
The Scotsman 16/10/1997
JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
A FORMER Celtic director described yesterday how he had been shocked by Fergus McCann giving the tag “low life” to Lou Macari, the club’s manager at the time.
Brian Dempsey, 50, said he had supported the McCann-led takeover at Celtic Park in March 1994 and within days recommended to the new managing director that Mr Macari be dismissed.
“I felt Mr Macari had been used by the old board to support some of their actions and therefore he was on a target list as far as I was concerned,” Mr Dempsey told the Court of Session after being called as a witness by Mr Macari in his damages action against Celtic.
“The new administration had to be very open where everyone could work together. I felt he [Mr Macari] had been a supporter of the old board and their running of Celtic Football Club.”
Mr Dempsey had wanted Tommy Burns to be approached formally to replace Mr Macari and Mr McCann, the club’s managing director, had said he would go away and think about matters.
By April, Mr McCann gave the impression that he was “unhappy” with the manager and would deal with it in his own time. However, the question of Mr Macari’s contract had never been discussed in the various talks between Mr Dempsey and Mr McCann.
Mr Dempsey said there had been meetings with potential investors in Celtic who had also wanted to see changes in terms of the manager and players.
Speaking of one meeting, the witness added: “He [Mr McCann] referred to Mr Macari as ‘low life’. That more than hit me because it caused me a great deal of concern that any one of us in that room would feel derogatory about the Celtic manager.
“I took it to be an American colloquialism which Mr McCann was given to use.”
Matthew Clarke, QC, for Celtic, suggested that such a remark had not been made but Mr Dempsey insisted: “I heard the phrase. It was not something I was used to.”
Celtic ‘unreasonable’ in house move request
The Scotsman 17/10/1997
A FORMER Celtic director told a court yesterday that he believed Fergus McCann made an unreasonable request for Lou Macari to move his family home to Scotland.
After Mr McCann had secured his place on the Parkhead board, he told Mr Macari, then Celtic’s manager, that he had to move his family residence from England to Glasgow. But the former director, James Farrell, told the Court of Session in Edinburgh, on the last day of evidence in a case between Mr Macari and Celtic, he believed it had been unreasonable.
The case will resume in January for legal submissions before Lady Cosgrove issues her decision later.
Mr Farrell said Mr Macari’s problems over moving house were common to football managers. “There was always a reasonable approach by a sensible board of directors to allow managers and players to accommodate their circumstances and their children’s education,” he said.
He was asked about minutes in which directors expressed concerns about the performance of the management team, led by Mr Macari. He said: “The person who was making complaints, and the only person making complaints, was Mr McCann, the managing director.”
Mr Farrell said he believed Mr McCann had been influential in the outcome of an extraordinary general meeting at which he was voted off the board. “He got some of the incoming members of the new board to vote against me and certainly put pressure on other directors, in particular Jack McGinn, who apologised to me and said Fergus McCann had put the gun to his head and he had no alternative but to vote against me.”
Celtic’s lawyer, Matthew Clarke, QC, asked if Mr Farrell’s giving evidence in the case could be seen as a way of getting back at Mr McCann. Mr Farrell said: “No, I am only interested in the justice of the matter as I see it.”