The Celtic CEO is accused of lying to the fans. The club cannot ignore that.

The other day, I heard a very interesting interview with two members of the Green Brigade, in which they claimed that the club has not had meaningful contact with them since December 2023.

Now, that was in the timeframe, as you know, that we sometimes refer to on this website as the mid-season slump. It was a point in that year’s title race where we almost threw it away. We were fortunate, though, that we got ourselves back on form and went on that outstanding winning run towards the end of the season.

We got the job done, got over the line, won the double. Everyone was happy. But that spell left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people. It wasn’t so much what was happening on the field as what was happening off it.

At the time, I was briefed by the club that the Green Brigade had been banned for hooliganism. I read the club’s statement when it was released, and it was broadly in line with what I had been told. I agreed that under those circumstances, a ban had to happen. The club could not allow an element of the support to behave in such a manner. It was very clear.

But in the aftermath, we were told that things had essentially returned to normal, that the situation had been stabilised, that all involved had given assurances, and that things could carry on as normal. I’ve heard it various times over the last few years that the Green Brigade and the club are constantly in contact over things such as banners, fan behaviour and a lot else.

That’s why I was profoundly surprised to hear a member of the Green Brigade say that none of this is the case—that the club has not spoken to the Green Brigade since that ban. Michael Nicholson, the CEO, has been completely intransigent and has refused to get around the table with them. Under normal circumstances, I would say that was business as usual. But it’s not business as usual.

It’s not business as usual if the club has been openly telling lies.

And listen, that’s the allegation here.

That’s what these guys said on the podcast with 90 Minute Cynic. They have claimed that the club has lied about its meetings with the Green Brigade and other fan groups, and in particular about the March incident where the Green Brigade were prevented from attending the Celtic Park derby by Police Scotland.

Before we get to that, let’s talk about the impression you get about Michael Nicholson from listening to these two guys.

We have long said on this blog that Nicholson is the invisible man of Celtic Park. He says nothing. He doesn’t believe part of his duties is to communicate with the fans. He doesn’t seem to hold much respect for the views of the fans.

Some people have said he’s nothing but a puppet dangling on the strings of a certain other person. Now that certain other person denies it and will always deny it.

What I do know is that when a direct question was put to Nicholson about the club’s hiring practices at the last AGM, it was the chairman who chose to interject and frame that question in a different way—a way it had not been intended—a way that sought to accuse one of my fellow bloggers, Joe McHugh, of being some sort of disruptive force.

Nicholson never answered the question properly.

We have long accused Peter Lawwell of being way too powerful whilst he was in the role of CEO, and that’s a charge I don’t think he would even deny now. But in contrast, Nicholson doesn’t seem to hold any real influence at all.

One of the most interesting things said on that podcast was that when you talk to Nicholson, or try to engage with him, you always get the impression you’re talking to a politician—someone who wants to make sure he’s towing the party line and cannot answer a question without going back and getting permission first.

That makes the Celtic CEO nothing but an empty shirt—albeit a very well-paid empty shirt. And that should trouble us a little bit.

But not half as much as telling lies should trouble us.

So let’s get to the guts of it.

According to the boys from the Green Brigade, they questioned Nicholson on an alleged meeting he had with supporters’ groups in relation to the March kettling incident. Among those groups, he claimed to have met members of the Official Celtic Supporters Association.

But the Celtic Supporters Association had already told the Green Brigade no such meeting took place. What was more extraordinary about the claim, even than that, is that, according to the Green Brigade boys, the CSA were sitting in the room at the fans’ forum meeting where Nicholson made that claim.

They describe the whole thing as surreal and bizarre.

But they went even further. They pointed out that Celtic has released official statements on the website, communicating with the broader support and claiming that those meetings had taken place; that’s a serious issue. Celtic cannot ignore that claim. Celtic should respond to it, and Celtic must respond to it.

I know I’m going to lobby my own supporters’ bus executive to get to the bottom of this issue. If the club think they can skate around this, they are wrong.

Because there is another incendiary claim in that interview which they cannot pretend isn’t there: the claim that members of the board have suggested to the Green Brigade that they would be willing to look the other way on pyro for certain matches where we aren’t likely to face a sanction from the football authorities.

That claim basically says members of our board of directors have willingly enabled the breaking of the law.

That, to me, is a much more serious allegation—even more serious than the Green Brigade claim that the club has lied to the fans.

That claim is so serious that the points made on the rest of that podcast have to be addressed. It would be highly suspect if the club tackled one of the claims on that podcast whilst ignoring the rest of it.

I want answers on both those points.

But I know most supporters will be more concerned about the lie—if indeed that’s what we’re calling it—and it’s what the guys on the podcast call it, knowing no other word to use to describe it. If it’s the wilful dissemination of an untruth, then that is a lie. They are perfectly entitled to call it that.

So are the rest of us, if indeed that’s what happened.

It may just be that there are misunderstandings and miscommunications here, but those two claims are pretty big and pretty hard to misunderstand.

It is high time Nicholson faced the fans. It is high time Nicholson got himself in front of the media and subjected himself to some scrutiny.

He stands accused of lying here—not only to that meeting of the fans’ forum but to the wider Celtic support on a very serious issue.

If he thinks he can simply ignore that claim, then he should consider that in the same interview there was a claim that Celtic board members have helped to facilitate people breaking the law inside Celtic Park.

If he thinks he can ignore these things, then he is greatly mistaken. Because both these things require an answer, and every Celtic fan should be determined to make sure we get them.