There comes a point in dealings with the Celtic board when you simply have to say enough is enough. There comes a point when you stop trying to understand the latest Celtic initiative, stop giving them the benefit of the doubt, stop pretending that everything can be solved by another meeting, another consultation or another carefully worded statement, and simply ask one question:
Why the hell are you still not listening to us?
That is exactly where I am after reading the latest account from the Celtic Fans Collective following Tuesday’s meeting with Celtic.
The Collective has raised serious concerns about the club’s proposed supporter-engagement model, particularly Celtic Connect.
It says it had been working on a proposal for a genuine Fan Advisory Board and had attempted to engage with Celtic about it, only for the club to launch its own consultation process without first discussing that proposal with the Collective.
And this is where I start getting seriously angry. Fan engagement without properly engaging the fans? Are you having a laugh?
The Collective’s central objection is that Celtic appears to want to select supporter representatives itself, while the Collective argues that representatives should receive their mandate through supporter nominations and democratic elections. It also wants proper safeguards around representation, leadership, agendas, transparency and accountability.
You know which word is paramount here? Democracy.
Because this is Celtic. This is not some faceless corporation where supporters simply buy a product, take their seats and go home. Celtic was built by people. It was built by a community. Celtic Park exists because generations of supporters have poured their money, time, emotion and lives into this football club.
And yet somehow, we have reached a point where the people running Celtic appear to believe they can design a supporter-engagement structure and then tell supporters how that structure will work. No.
Let us stop this shit. If you genuinely want to know what Celtic supporters think, ask Celtic supporters before you build the bloody system.
It really is not complicated.
This is precisely why the Celtic Fans Collective matters. It is a coalition of supporter groups seeking transparency, accountability and meaningful engagement, and its stated aim is to ensure supporters are treated as stakeholders rather than simply an audience. It has elected its first executive board. That is more than the club has done.
That distinction is fundamental.
We are not an audience. We are not background decoration. We are not the noise filling Celtic Park while the “important” pricks in the boardroom make the “important” decisions. We are Celtic, and I do not mean that in some romantic, flowery football-supporter sense, although God knows I am capable of that.
I mean it literally.
The relationship between Celtic and its supporters is the foundation on which everything else rests. When supporters are telling you there is a problem with that relationship, your first response should not be, “How can we manage this?”
It should be: what have we done wrong, and how do we fix it?
That is leadership. That is accountability. That is how you rebuild trust.
Instead, what we keep getting is another structure, another process, another consultation, another layer between the people who run Celtic and the people who support Celtic.
And I am exhausted by it.
The irony is almost painful. Celtic’s own 2025 annual report proudly stated that the club had established a Fans’ Forum in 2016 to provide a platform for dialogue with supporters, with the agenda set by supporters.
So, what happened? Well, the forum itself was “invites only.” They made a clear choice about who they wanted to speak to and who they did not. This latest rubbish is simply another step down a dreadful path.
How did we get from the principle that supporters should have a platform and influence over the issues discussed to a situation where a supporter collective is now challenging the very basis on which the new engagement model is being constructed?
Let us stop pretending this is just about terminology. It is not.
This is about power.
Who chooses the representatives? Who decides what gets discussed? Who controls the agenda? Who can change the structure? Who can withdraw it? And, most importantly, who do those representatives answer to?
If the answer ultimately becomes Celtic Football Club, then I understand completely why supporters are worried.
A supporter representative should represent supporters.
Not the Board pricks. Not the CEO. Not the executive structure. Not whoever happens to occupy a particular office at Celtic Park.
The supporters. That is why the Collective’s proposal for elected representation matters so much. According to its account, Celtic’s representatives recognised merit in parts of the proposal, but there was reluctance around democratic selection and whether elections should form part of the process.
And that is the bit I cannot get out of my head.
Why would you be reluctant to let supporters choose their representatives?
Seriously. If you believe your engagement model is strong, transparent and representative, why should democratic elections be a problem?
And if Celtic supporters choose representatives who challenge the Board, perhaps that is precisely what Celtic needs. Because a supporter representative who is frightened of upsetting the club is not really a representative at all.
They are decoration. And Celtic does not need another decorative structure.
We need accountability.
Celtic supporters are not stupid. We can see when something is genuine.
We can also see when something is PR. We can see when someone is talking to us and when someone is talking at us. After everything that has happened around Celtic over the last couple of seasons, the last thing this football club needs is another attempt to manufacture the appearance of unity without dealing with the reasons why supporters are angry in the first place.
And let me be absolutely clear about something else. I do not want permanent confrontation between Celtic and Celtic supporters. I do not want Celtic Park to become a battlefield between the boardroom and the stands.
I want the opposite.
I want cooperation. I want Celtic to sit down with supporters and actually listen. I want proper structures, transparency, accountability and representatives who genuinely represent the people who elected them.
And I want a Celtic Board which understands that being challenged by supporters is not an act of betrayal. It is part of being accountable.
The Celtic Fans Collective has already made clear that it wants meaningful, structured and ongoing dialogue and that supporters should be treated as stakeholders rather than an audience. That is exactly the distinction Celtic needs to understand.
So, to the Celtic Board pricks, I say this: stop treating us like pawns. Stop acting as though everything can be decided above our heads and then handed down to us. Stop behaving as though consultation means telling supporters what you have already decided. Stop confusing communication with engagement.
And stop underestimating the people who fill Celtic Park.
Because we are not going anywhere.
We are the people who sing, travel, buy the tickets, buy the shirts, defend this club when it is attacked and carry Celtic into the next generation. We deserve a voice. Not a token voice. Not a carefully managed voice. A real one.
As for Michael Nicholson, Dermot Desmond and the rest of the people who have been running Celtic in this manner, my position is very simple.
I want fundamental change at Celtic Park. I want accountability from the top. And personally, I want Nicholson and Desmond out.
That is my opinion, and I am not going to dress it up. But even beyond individual personalities, this is about something much bigger.
People come and go. CEOs come and go. Chairmen come and go. Managers come and go. Players come and go. Celtic remains.
And the supporters remain with it.
That is why the structure matters. That is why representation matters. That is why democracy matters. So let us stop this shit.
Let us stop pretending Celtic can repair its relationship with supporters without actually giving supporters a meaningful role in shaping that relationship.
Let us focus on what Celtic should be: a football club with enormous resources, enormous history and an extraordinary support; a club where the boardroom understands the stands; a club where supporters are treated as stakeholders; a club where disagreement does not mean disloyalty; and a club where accountability is not something demanded by supporters but something expected from those in power.
Above all, the people running Celtic need to understand one simple truth.
Celtic does not belong to the people sitting in the boardroom in their fucking expensive suits and ties. It belongs to all of us.
The Celtic badge is bigger than any executive. Bigger than any chairman. Bigger than any CEO. Bigger than any billionaire shareholder.
And certainly bigger than any attempt to manage, control or silence the people who have carried it for generations.
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Great piece Paulina and it cuts through all the bullshit but what the board really wants is guys like Paul Brennan who’s nose would be so far up the directors arses he’d have a permanent brown streak down the centre of his face. The board have known for years that allowing fan engagement brings scrutiny of what they’re allowing to happen to the club because they haven’t a clue where to take the club or how to achieve what the supporters want or match our ambition. That would also lead to supporters seeing the competence, or lack of, that each board member bring to their individual roles at the club and as far as they’re concerned they don’t want the support to know their actual input. The truth is they’re all cowards who allow one man to rule with impunity even although he doesn’t own the club, there’s not an ounce of backbone on that board and all they want is to retain the status quo so they get their dividend every year. We all know that many have either overstayed the length of time a director normally does which is five to eight years or they’re so browbeaten by a tyrant major shareholder and are incapable of enforcing change in case Desmond ousts them from the board. These peoples’ fingernails are metaphorically hanging onto the edge of a cliff as they’re trying to hold on to the status of Celtic director as it defines them to friends, family and the outside world whilst they do nothing of any actual substance in the decision making of where the club could and should be. My worry has always been how far does the club have to fall before the supporters stop giving them money? This is salvageable at this point if this board have an epiphany and act now but that requires the balls to stand up to Desmond and his nepo-baby and put together a plan and a structure for the club that supporters can see has merit and are willing to get behind. Alas I don’t think that that will happen all I see us is sinking to depths that could take a decade or more to fix.
Great article Paulina and a great addition from Torky!
Once again (cash is king) these sycophantic barstewards do not give a monkeys about the fans! Fact is DD is allowing them to do whatever they want,which is f%#k all.
Buck stops with DD.