Celtic’s annus horribilis continues. Last week they were rejected by their No.1 managerial target Eddie Howe after the former Bournemouth boss had kept them dangling on a string for over three months and now UEFA have confirmed that their second choice, the Greek-born Australian Ange Postecoglou, does not possess the necessary qualifications to be offered the job.
The 55-year-old, who is still in Japan with current club Yokohama F Marinos, has been a coach for 25 years but only nine months of that time has been spent in Europe during an unsuccessful spell with Greek Third Division club Panachaiki. As a result, he doesn’t have updated A & B UEFA licences or the highest qualification, the Pro licence, which UEFA insist are mandatory for managers taking charge of European top-tier clubs.
Celtic have asked the governing body in Switzerland to grant the 55-year-old special dispensation from having the required paperwork, arguing that his quarter of a century in the Asian game should be sufficient to allow him to replace Neil Lennon as the permanent manager at Parkhead. Even so, their appeal could take weeks to be heard, with the result that Postecoglou would miss the beginning of pre-season training.
The club, who have still to appoint a director of football or head of recruitment, will need to strengthen their squad for 2021/22, although who will make those decisions with the top three positions vacant remains to be seen.
The Celtic players who aren’t on international duty at the Euros are due to report back to Lennoxtown a fortnight today, with Lennon’s assistants John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan now likely to once again be in charge of preparations after UEFA revealed that Postecoglou’s case will not be heard until later this month.
“Mr Postecoglou does not currently hold the UEFA Pro Licence,” they said. “A recognition of competence procedure has been initiated [following Celtic’s appeal]. In general terms, the duration of the whole process depends on the requesting party, meaning if they provide all required documents in due course. The process could take several weeks. We don't have any further information to provide you with at this stage.”
Lennon parted company with Celtic for the second time 14 weeks ago today. Chief executive Peter Lawwell is due to step down on June 30 following the club’s first trophy-less campaign in 11 years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel