Peter Lawwell had Celtic influence in banishing Super League villains as James Bisgrove invited to ECA top table

Peter Lawwell has been hailed as one of the generals who led from the front in the fight for the heart and soul of European football.

Now the door has been left open for Rangers new chief executive James Bisgrove to join the Celtic supremo at the battle for the future of the game. Lawwell’s position in the influential European Club Association after 20 years treading the corridors of power was needed to ward off the threat of the breakaway Super League bid two years ago. ECA chief exec Charlie Marshall revealed the part the Hoops chairman played in putting down the rebellion, while opening the door to the new Rangers boardroom team to take a place at the top table.

Marshall said: “We obviously opposed it strongly, along with the rest of the world thankfully, and it unraveled quite quickly. Most of those clubs have had to reconsider and reconsider their roles at the ECA. Over a very difficult process, institutionally and personally, many of them came back. More the clubs rather than the individuals. But Peter, as a senior board member at the time, was one of the key people we all gravitated around to form this opposition.

“You can have all the points and statistics you like, but do you have individuals that are able to operate well at that level, who are constructive and well respected – and can see the bigger picture rather than just their own club? Peter Lawwell is absolutely one of those people. He’s been a mainstay of the ECA board.

“Now he’s moving up the subdivisions and is becoming even more senior. He’s not just respected within the ECA, but also within UEFA and FIFA, the stakeholders we need to work with, because he has that constructive approach. It’s all good for Scottish football.”

Marshall represents more