Has the door been closed indefinitely to fan media? It sure seems that way.

I have been thinking about Celtic and fan media, and honestly, I have reached a rather depressing conclusion.

It appears that Celtic does not want fan media back.

And let us examine that properly, because fan media was never supposed to be some decorative little addition to the Celtic PR machine. It was supposed to have a purpose. A real purpose. It was supposed to be a bridge between the club and the people who fill Celtic Park, buy the tickets, buy the shirts, travel to watch the team, defend the club, argue about the club, write about the club and, most importantly, love the club.

Fan media should have been there to discuss things, to engage, to listen, to challenge and to represent the main voice which matters in all of this: the voice of Celtic supporters.

So, what happened? Fans got angry. Fans found their voices. The Collective was born, and the club reacted out of spite. A gross mistake. And now we can’t roll it back.

If meaningful engagement was genuinely going to happen, surely it would have happened by now. That is the part I cannot get out of my head. Celtic had its brief flirtation with the idea of proper engagement with fan media, and they claimed the matter was “under review”; some hoped it was to do things better, but if the intention was genuine, why are we still sitting here waiting for something which apparently never seems to arrive?

At some point, you have to stop calling something a process and start recognising it for what it is. And I think it is probably safe to say that Celtic’s brief flirtation with this idea is over.

Finished. Gone. And that is incredibly disappointing.

More than that, it is incredibly short-sighted.

Because let us focus on that for a moment. What exactly does Celtic gain by shutting out independent Celtic voices? What does the club gain by refusing to engage with people who spend their time discussing Celtic, analysing Celtic, criticising Celtic and, yes, sometimes defending Celtic? I genuinely do not understand it.

Fan media is not the enemy of Celtic. Supporters are not the enemy of Celtic. People asking questions are not the enemy of Celtic. People who say, “Hang on a minute, this isn’t good enough,” are not the enemy of Celtic.

Quite often, those people are saying precisely what they are saying because they care so deeply. And this is where we have to ask whether Celtic’s current leadership has forgotten what being a football club actually means.

Celtic is not a corporation in isolation. It is not merely a balance sheet, a collection of commercial departments, annual reports, revenue streams and executive offices.

Celtic is people. It is history, memory and generations. It is the boy or girl seeing Paradise for the first time. It is the father taking his son, the mother taking her daughter and the grandfather telling stories about teams from decades ago.

It is the supporter travelling hundreds of miles. It is the person watching from another country who still feels that strange little pull in the chest whenever those green and white hoops appear on the television.

That is Celtic. And fan media is part of that ecosystem. So why treat it as something which should be kept at arm’s length?

And when we look at the wider picture surrounding Celtic, it becomes even more frustrating, because this could have been a way to try to repair relations between the club and the fans. It would show a willingness to talk, to engage properly, it would show the fan media guys the appropriate amount of respect.

We have seen supporters increasingly questioning the way the club communicates. We have seen supporters’ organisations raising concerns about consultation and representation. We have seen a growing feeling that the people running Celtic are becoming increasingly disconnected from the people who support Celtic. Part of it is the way the club behaved over fan media, and in spite of hints that things might be resolved it’s now clear that the club has got no intention of ever allowing them back.

If you do not want independent fan media asking questions, what exactly do you want? A perfectly controlled environment where Celtic only communicates through official channels? Where the club decides the questions, decides the answers, decides the narrative and decides which voices are allowed into the room?

Isn’t it pathetic, the lengths this club will go to in order to avoid sitting down and talking to its own supporters? Isn’t it a disgrace how spiteful they are?

Real engagement means sometimes hearing things you do not like. It means sitting across the table from people who disagree with you. It means listening to criticism without immediately treating criticism as hostility.

It does not mean controlling the conversation. It does not mean selecting only the voices which make the club comfortable. It does not mean talking to supporters when it suits the club and disappearing when difficult questions arrive.

And what does this vindictiveness achieve?

Nothing. It does not make Celtic stronger. It does not improve results on the pitch. It does not improve supporter relations. It does not improve trust. It does not make the club more attractive. And it does not stop fan media from poring over every detail of this club’s business, and asking the hard questions.

It simply creates another unnecessary wound.

And Celtic already has enough wounds.

That is why we should be looking at the Celtic board and asking a question we really should not have to ask about the people running the club we love. Why is like this?

Why make everything so difficult? Why push away people who should be inside the Celtic family? Why create confrontation where there does not need to be confrontation? Why behave as though supporters asking questions are somehow an inconvenience?

Sometimes I look at the Celtic board pricks and honestly wonder whether they understand the depth of feeling supporters have for this football club. Because if they did, surely they would understand that people do not criticise Celtic because they hate Celtic.

Quite the opposite. We criticise Celtic because we love Celtic. We get angry because we care. We write because we care. We argue because we care. We refuse to shrug our shoulders and say, “That is just the way things are,” because Celtic deserves better than that.

We are not customers standing outside a supermarket waiting for the next product. We are Celtic supporters. We are the people who make Paradise Paradise.

And if the club genuinely believes it can continue pushing away independent voices, supporters’ organisations and people asking uncomfortable questions without eventually damaging itself, then that is incredibly short-sighted.

Imagine what could have happened if fan media had been properly embraced.

Imagine Celtic creating a genuine forum where difficult issues could be discussed. Imagine journalists, bloggers, podcasters and supporters’ representatives sitting down with Celtic officials and actually talking. Imagine disagreement not being treated as disloyalty and criticism sometimes being understood as an expression of love rather than hatred.

Imagine Celtic actually trusting its own supporters.

Imagine Celtic saying: “Come in. Talk to us. Tell us what you think. Challenge us. We might not agree, but we will listen.” That would feel like Celtic. And these people might not have created such a negative perception around themselves.

Instead, we seem to be moving further and further away from that idea.

And I hate that. I hate it because Celtic is bigger than the people currently sitting in offices. Much bigger. Desmond will not be there forever. Nicholson will not be there forever. None of us will be. But Celtic will remain.

The green and white will remain. Paradise will remain. The songs will remain. The memories will remain. And the supporters will remain.

So the message is actually very simple: stop fighting your own people.

Stop treating supporters as an obstacle. Stop treating fan media as a nuisance. Stop treating criticism as an attack.

Open the doors. Talk to people. Listen. Engage. Because Celtic does not need another wall between the club and its supporters.

Celtic needs a bridge, and if the pricks currently running Celtic cannot understand that, then perhaps it is time for different people to take responsibility for the future of our beloved club. Because ultimately, this is not about fan media.

It is about Celtic. And Celtic belongs to all of us. Not to a boardroom, not to a handful of executives, not to one shareholder and not to one CEO. Celtic belongs to the people who carry it in their hearts. And those people deserve to be heard.

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