McKAY WON’T HESITATE TO CALL LAWWELL FOR ADVICE IN ROLE AS PARKHEAD CHIEF
DOMINIC McKay insists he will have no qualms over picking the brain of his Celtic predecessor Peter Lawwell. Lawwell formally finishes up as Parkhead chief executive after 17 years in charge next week, but will retain his role as the club’s representative on the European Club Association. Keen to modernise and upgrade the club’s operations, former Scottish Rugby executive McKay claims he won’t hesitate to pick up the phone should the need arise. ‘Peter will finish up at the end of the month,’ said McKay. ‘We’ve got two years left on the ECA which is a really important role for Scotland and the club, so he’ll stay engaged with that. ‘He’s been fantastic to me during the transition and said he’ll be on the end of the phone if there’s any questions I want to bounce off him. It’s great to have his support and him being in our corner. ‘I now have this great responsibility and opportunity to lead this club and make sure we’re going to be a success. ‘I can’t do that on my own. I’m going to lean very heavily on Ange. I’m going to lean heavily on colleagues across our executive team. And if that means I tap into expertise externally, I’ll do that.’ Undertaking to give new manager Ange Postecoglou the financial backing he needs to rebuild a team in transition, McKay praised Celtic supporters for snapping up season tickets despite the uncertainty around the team. With the Scottish Government hopeful of scrapping Covid restrictions by August 9, the new chief hopes to fill Parkhead early in the new season. ‘One of the critical elements of that, in terms of finance, is getting supporters back into the stadium,’ he said. ‘And I’m blown away by the level of uptake in our season tickets. It’s only been a short window in terms of season tickets, but the volume of sales is almost unprecedented in the last couple of weeks. ‘That’s massively helpful in terms of our forward planning, to enable us to invest in the squad.’ McKay held talks with the Scottish Government over the return of fans yesterday morning, admitting: ‘They are ongoing discussions. The success of getting 12,500 into Hampden has been fantastic. Ange and I were fortunate to be down at Wembley for the Scotland game when there was 22,500. ‘The First Minister’s announcement last week that the restrictions are due to be lifted, in terms of social distancing on the 19th of July and then again August 8 is massively helpful. ‘The conversation this morning with the government was to say: “Okay, Celtic Football Club, this wonderful stadium, is ready to host crowds as soon as we possibly can”. I suspect by the time we get to our European fixtures we’ll have a good size crowd back in.’