I had a good idea before the 2013 AGM that there was no appetite. PL and I met to go over a a membership scheme idea I had been engaging with Celtic on in May 2013 not long after the LNS Decision was made public. I brought up the topic of SFA being unprofessional and he agreed and said he needed a Dougie Dougie moment which I took as being leverage for change. So in a way PL was genesis of Res12. In June the Charlotte Fakes stuff surfaced and I alerted PL it was out and he asked to be kept informed. I did so obviously thinking it would be leverage material. That feed with interpretation of what it might mean stopped end July when he went on holiday.
In parallel the creator of Res12 on CQN had floated a draft which drew in myself and BRTH to give it locus around UEFA licence. Getting 100 shareholders to sign was a task in itself especially as I was out of the country but the 4th musketeer Morrisey123 (M) turned up to do the leg work, get forms signed and eventually get them delivered after a bit of a stooshie with the doorman buts that is M all over
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I watched to see The Boards response which totally ignored the information supplied to PL and I though hmmmm.
There was a meeting before AGM 2013 with PL, the Comp Sec M and BRTH at which Celtic requested the Res be withdrawn on basis of an SFA response to a letter from Celtic in early 2011 which on reading was not supported by the CF stuff so that request was refused.
I remember the point being made that if Celtic voted down Res12 and the CF material surfaced that would raise eyebrows but cannot be sure who made the point. The meeting ended with no decision.
The following day whilst on a conference call with M and another whom M had sought advice from before the Celtic meeting, BRTH joined to say he had spoken to the Company Secretary and the suggestion of an adjournment came up from Comp Sec.
It was a way out of the impasse, kept Res12 alive and on every AGM agenda and at the time created time to understand UEFA FFP rules and HMRC procedures better so it was agreed. Otherwise Celtic would have voted it down which might have caused a stushie at the AGM but it would have died quite quickly thereafter without the authority to probe the adjournment offered.
It was agreed at Celtic's insistence requsitioners would ask questions of SFA but not of UEFA and since SFA were the licensing authority it was best place to start.
From there on in there were meetings mainly with the Company Secretary, in fact I don't recall PL being at any. I think he thought job done and with the benefit of the passage of time, if he was aware of the CAS clause in the 5 Way agreement (which we don't know for sure although we know he and Eric Riley had the 5 Way delivered to them at end July 2012) then he probably thought game over but in effect it had only begun (but had I know it would take 7 years to play, I think I would have bailed out as I almost did twice.
What I do recall of a meeting with Comp Sec was losing the rag when told PL was doing everything possible to help the cause. I almost walked out at the start when I saw same game of delay being played, but did before the end on hearing how much PL was doing. SFA effective was my reply. In truth I was happy not to be in PL's Company the longer the game went on.
PL spoke to me once on the phone in May 2016 to say Celtic/he had agreed the shareholders could go to UEFA with our concerns articulated by our lawyer who was brought in start of 2015. That produced the Traverso new club/company response in early June that answered a question never asked and totally threw us off balance. We should maybe have got out then , one of the times I was ready to bail out.
The Traverso reply surprised Celtic and the SFA who were both copied in so much that Broadfoot at the SFA worked with STV Grant to put out a response from UEFA media dept (not Traverso) that left out the new club/company reference.
Given SFA made a big show of UEFA being approached at their June AGM in an announcement that took Celtic's Company Sec by surprise it was great to see them get bit on the arse. You have no idea how devious they were and probably still are..