There was a moment last Sunday when the cameras cut to Peter Lawwell. Sat in the directors’ box high in the stand at Hampden, he wore a look of total despair as St Mirren’s third goal flew in.
A man who served Celtic for over two decades and helped build them into the most dominant club in the country, he has been one of the most significant figures in Scottish football during that period.
But here he looked crestfallen, his head in his hands. Lawwell and the rest of the Celtic hierarchy could only look on in horror as Wilfried Nancy’s team crashed to a 3-1 defeat in the Premier Sports Cup final.
After all the acrimony of recent months, the club’s reckless gamble on an unproven manager had plumbed new depths.
Given the anger and mutiny that has surrounded the club, with fans protesting and calling for the removal of the board, perhaps Lawwell knew this was the last straw.
So it proved. In a short statement to the London Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon, Celtic confirmed that Lawwell will step down as non-executive chairman as of December 31.
Peter Lawwell leaves Celtic financially stable but during a period of major turmoil on the pitch
Lawwell was an influential figure for Celtic both at home and in Europe’s corridors of power during his two spells at the club
In a statement released on Celtic’s website, he cited the abuse and threats made against himself and his family as key factors in his decision to walk away.
It was a sad note on which to end his association with a club for whom he’s helped deliver unrelenting success on the domestic front.
A club he’s built into an empire with cash reserves of almost £80million in the bank.
And yet, those perceptions of a hierarchy having become complacent, and the club having stagnated, are hard to shift.
Does Lawwell leave Celtic in a better position than when he arrived 22 years ago? Financially, yes, without question.
As for matters on the pitch, and the continued decay and degradation of the playing squad over the past year or so, he leaves them in a mess.
Lawwell’s departure will mark the end of an era, but there are nuances in assessing the legacy of a man who polarised opinion.
He arrived at Celtic as chief executive in 2003 at a time when the team had just reached a UEFA Cup final in Seville under Martin O’Neill.
Lawwell bore the brunt of angry supporters calling for the Celtic board to be sacked
The club were facing financial uncertainty at that point. With a steadying hand, however, Lawwell turned them into a domestic powerhouse.
From 2003 until 2021, when he initially stepped away only to return a couple of years later, Celtic racked up 29 major trophies.
He helped transform the club off the pitch, overseeing the redevelopment of Celtic Park and the creation of a new training facility at Lennoxtown.
Where Rangers had once been the dominant force in the governance of Scottish football and corridors of power, Lawwell became a towering figure.
At the peak of his powers in his various roles with UEFA and the European Club Association, he could pull levers and exert a level of influence few others in Scottish football could match.
He oversaw a player-trading model that brought in fortunes for the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Moussa Dembele, among others.
The club were posting record profits and the bank balance boomed. Strong, prudent and sustainable, Lawwell’s Celtic were the antithesis to the financial meltdown that had plunged Rangers into oblivion.
He was a tough negotiator and a shrewd operator, one who navigated UEFA’s corridors and balanced the books in an industry that devours the reckless.
Peter Lawwell looks crestfallen during the League Cup final defeat to St Mirren last Sunday
Some supporters make their feelings known about Lawwell during a demonstration
But football is not just about spreadsheets and sustainability. It is also about ambition and progression.
Lawwell turned Celtic into the dominant force in a diminished league. All too often, though, Europe became a theatre of humiliation.
During his first spell at the club, Celtic were dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers by the likes of Maribor, Malmo, AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros. Earlier this season, it was Kairat Almaty.
Celtic have failed to make any sustained progress in Europe over the past 20 years, and that’s why Lawwell’s legacy will feel hollow to so many supporters. The implosion of the ten-in-a-row season in 2020-21 was another blot on the copybook.
That led to protests erupting outside Celtic Park, with fans hurling metal fences and demanding change.
Lawwell’s home was even targeted in an arson attack, a grim underscore to the general toxicity that had built up at the time.
His return as chairman in 2023, after a brief retirement, reignited old feelings of resentment among supporters.
There were accusations of nepotism because of his son’s role in recruitment, while the board were seen as detached and self-preserving.
Only a few weeks ago, on the back of a botched summer transfer window and the departure of Brendan Rodgers, the club’s AGM descended into farce.
Celtic fans chant for the board to go during a Europa League match at Parkhead
Lawwell, perhaps unwisely, told those in attendance to ‘behave’ as the meeting was pockmarked by protests.
Now chief executive Michael Nicholson has clamed that three club officials were physically assaulted once they arrived back at Celtic Park after the Hampden defeat last Sunday.
In the end, Lawwell’s departure feels inevitable. Eventually, with the club eating itself from the inside out, something had to give.
Lawwell leaves with a haul of silverware few can match, but also with a support divided like never before in his era.
Given the riches available to them over the past 15 years or so, Celtic should be light years ahead of everyone else in Scottish football.
Too often, however being the best team in Scotland felt like the grand sum of their ambition.
Lawwell’s legacy is one of immense success and undeniable stability – yet a lingering sense of what might have been.
