The Celtic Fans Collective has a plan. Let’s give them time to develop it.

Every campaign, every movement that has ever existed, has needed structure. Energy and enthusiasm are brilliant, but they’re what you start with. After that you need to hand the thing to people who can take all that energy and shape it into something coherent. If a movement grows, it has to organise.

Organisation and strategic coherence are the backbone of any successful campaign. I often think of Occupy Wall Street. At the beginning, it had clear goals: reform the financial system, get reparations for those hammered by unscrupulous practices, and see people held accountable for what they’d done.

But as it grew, it became unwieldy. Suddenly it was a movement to end capitalism itself, to overthrow representative government. The message got lost in the noise.

And worst of all, it wore leaderlessness as a badge of honour. That was madness. If you wanted to be taken seriously, people needed to know who they were talking to, who could negotiate, who could make decisions. With nobody empowered to do that, it collapsed into anarchy. The most badly structured committee would have been better than nothing.

The Celtic Fans Collective has just formed its first steering committee. And before anyone thinks I’m speaking on its behalf, let me stop you there. I’m not. I’m explaining the thinking behind having one in the first place and why it’s structured the way it is.

I’ve been in plenty of political campaigns over the years.

Every one of them needed working groups to coordinate, balance competing interests, and most importantly, keep everyone united. That’s what a steering committee is for. It isn’t a ruling body. It’s an operational one.

This group has already set up sub-groups for different tasks, relying on volunteers. And let me tell you something: volunteers are gold.

They give up their time, their energy, their evenings and weekends, and most will never get thanks for it. Some burn out, some drift away, but every single one deserves respect for stepping up in the first place. Nobody here is getting paid, nobody is chasing glory. They’re doing it because they love Celtic and want it run better.

The steering group is a cross-section of the support. One seat each for the CSA, the Affiliation, the Irish Association, the Disabled Supporters Association. The Celtic Trust and FAC are there. The Green Brigade, the Bhoys, and the North Curve too. Three fan media reps. A voice from the Fans Forum. And ten representatives from Supporters Clubs across Scotland, England, and Ireland.

It’s designed that way deliberately, so no one faction can hijack it. Were the members elected? No. But that’s how these things always start; the people who show up at the beginning get things moving. They pick people with skills they need, and who can work together. Later, when the movement is stable, you can build elections into it. But for now, this ensures no one group dominates. That’s smart.

It’s also clever politically. That’s not a small consideration.

Think of it like a Prime Minister forming a Cabinet. You don’t just appoint your pals. You balance the wings of your party, you put in figures who reassure this group or that. In the US, a presidential candidate balances the ticket with their running mate. A northern wants a southerner. A liberal needs a moderate or a conservative. Politics is about coalitions. So is any form of transformational campaigning.

This committee isn’t permanent. But even in this temporary form, it has made sure the diversity of our support is represented.

That’s a hell of an achievement in itself. And, speaking as someone who has seen campaigns from the inside, I can tell you that this might look chaotic from the outside, but it’s already impressively well-run for something that’s only weeks old.

Some want the names of every committee member made public.

I understand that instinct. But I also understand why some don’t want their names out there. Jobs, families, past controversies; there are valid reasons. Some folk divide opinion just by being in the room (I know that one personally). Personalities matter less than the cause. Rodgers said it about the team: they don’t have to like each other; they just have to work as one when it counts. Same here.

The group was chosen partly for its skills. There will be legal minds, comms experience, campaign organisers, logistics people, folk with deep links into the support. But the most important qualification is trust: that their own communities believe they’ll do right by Celtic.

And already, they’re delivering.

The action at the Kilmarnock game, the protest at the Thistle match. You can agree or disagree with the tactics, but they maintained momentum. The worst thing a campaign could have done after the open letter was make noise and then go quiet. These actions showed the board and everyone else that this is serious.

A campaign is required to be in motion, always.

The committee also knows it can’t push further without wider consultation. That’s healthy. The open letter signed by hundreds of groups shows that the broad base is there. The protests with so much participation prove it too.

Now the task is to keep building outwards.

It’s worth stopping to appreciate how far this has come in such a short time. Less than two weeks ago we were in Grace’s for that first meeting. Since then, this movement has taken huge strides. Have we toppled the board yet? No. Built the permanent structure? Not yet. Done full outreach? Still to come.

But that’s fine. These things take time.

Give the steering committee that time. Give them space. Give them support. This isn’t instant coffee. It’s a slow brew. But it’s already strong, and it’s only going to get stronger. All the questions will be answered. All the concerns will be addressed. Problems have solutions. For now, let’s keep cool. Have a little faithful through and through.