Ruairi Daly 
Jeff Holmes/Getty Images Sport
Celtic chairman Ian Bankier position is untenable and has to leave following his comments, which make it seem like he is out of touch with the Celtic support.
Several fans group released a statement after the comments on Friday over criticism surrounding Lord Livingston.
Bankier made the comments at Celtic’s latest Annual General Meeting on Friday, prior to the weekend’s game against Kilmarnock.
The issue arose after shareholders raised a concern about the reappointment of Lord Livingston to the Celtic board.
Almost 10,000 people signed an online petition to voice their concern over his position in relation to the UK Government’s tax credit cuts.
The petition called for his immediate removal from the board after he voted in favour of tax credit cuts in the House of Lords – against the ethos of Celtic Football Club, as a symbol for helping those less fortunate.
Echoing the words of Brother Walfrid, many Celtic fans believe he is out of touch with fans and their views, and must resign or be replaced.
When commenting on comments made about Lord Livingston on social media, Bankier said:
This personal campaign against Lord Livingston is criminally racist. He has been subjected to a torrent of base personal abuse in social media.
After the comments filtered out from the AGM, fans were not happy at being branded ‘racists’.
Bankier attempted to clear up his comments and said:
I have not branded our supporters racist and it is outrageous to suggest that I would ever do that.
I was only referring to a small number of specific comments which have been made on social media, which I believe are unacceptable, and I know Celtic supporters would agree with me.
This was however met by a statement by the Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters’ Clubs, The Celtic Trust, and The Green Brigade accusing him of “an unforgivable slur on Celtic’s support”.
The groups said they would support the club and condemned some of the comments on social media, but still feel Bankier’s position is insupportable after his comments.
None of this is a justification for the generalised smearing of the Celtic support and, in particular, those of us who voted against Mr Livingston’s re-election. Mr Bankier committed an error of judgement and showed a complete lack of control at the AGM and this is not acceptable.
We would like to publically condemn his unprofessional behaviour and the subsequent attempts to suggest that his words had been taken out of context, as this patently was not the case.
Celtic issued a further statement last night, as the debacle continued.
Ian was simply referring to those individuals that the Trust in their statement have also condemned, so we seem to be in agreement.
We are surprised and disappointed that a public statement has been made without any dialogue on the matter with the club but, as always, we will be happy to meet any of our fans groups to discuss.
Eric Knott 
Aodhán Ó Conchobhair 
What is going on here? I wasn’t at the AGM but it’s obvious from Bankier’s statements that the only people he was slurring were the idiots who abused Livingston. Why the faux outrage by the Celtic Trust folk? Who do they speak for? This is pure politics as they know well what Bankier meant and if they didn’t his second statement should have put them right. This is the new brand of left wing mixing it we’re getting from a small minority who like the sound of their own voices too much. They might think they’re purifying Celtic in some way but all they’re doing is making us look stupid and divided. Give it a rest eh? And apologise to Bankier as you wilfully misrepresented what he said and meant. I won’t hold my breath on that,
I was at the AGM and agree with much of what you say.Prior to the re-election of Ian Livingston the meeting had re-elected three other directors and no-one questioned whether their political beliefs met with the shareholders approval. The whole thing was blatantly political although the chairman could have expressed himself better and did seem to become emotionally upset.
I think part of the problem is the frustration that the shareholders feel. Any motion that comes forward will be carried or defeated at the will of the board who always have sufficient proxies to win any vote. There was also some resentment that Dermot Desmond did not turn up (yet again) despite having fed the fans a story that Celtic were soon to join the English premiership (which the fans know is never going to happen), a story which the fans dismiss as simply propaganda designed to pacify them. Given both of these factors it is perhaps surprising that so many people still attend the AGM every year.