The War of the Words

There was a war of words last weekend between those charged with running Celtic and some Celtic Supporters. Dermot Desmond had tennis balls with pictures of his face crossed out thrown towards him in protest by Celtic Fans who are frustrated with his running of Celtic. The protest took place at St Andrews during the Alfred Dunhill Links golf tournament.

The last time I saw Dermot Desmond at Celtic Park for a game was the night Martin O’Neill replaced Brendan Rodgers back in October 2025. Since that night in Desmond’s absence Celtic fans have turned their anger towards the Celtic board on numerous occasions at games at Celtic Park.

The most recent being the 1-0 defeat to the rangers. This came on the back of another poor transfer window, failure to qualify for the Champions League when Celtic surrendered a 4 goal lead to Lask, a humiliating League Cup exit at Ibrox and a home defeat in the Europa League.

Celtic released a lengthy statement last Saturday night at 10:06pm on the clubs official website. The last time this happened was when Brendan Rodgers left the club and on that occasion the statement was signed by Dermot Desmond. That statement was a character assassination of the former Celtic manager, this time the fury was aimed at the Celtic Fans Collective but nobody took responsibility for the statement and it was released unsigned. (Click Link below to read statement)

https://www.celticfc.com/news/2026/october/03/Celtic-Football-Club-statement/

The Celtic Fans Collective responded with their own statement on Sunday afternoon.

In yet another rash late-night statement, Celtic Football Club, almost certainly at the behest of minority shareholder Dermot Desmond, sought to attack the Celtic Fans Collective. Similar interventions in recent years have tended to appear whenever the notoriously thin-skinned Desmond feels personally slighted. Yet when Celtic endure disastrous transfer windows, failed managerial appointments, supporters being attacked or kettled by police, or humiliating performances on the park that have actually damaged Celtic’s reputation, the same urgency is nowhere to be seen.

This tells Celtic supporters everything they need to know about Dermot Desmond and his priorities. He appears furious that ordinary working-class fans have dared to air their grievances in the safe, elitist world of golf, embarrassing him in front of the network of people whose opinions he appears to value far more than those of Celtic supporters.

We will respond in greater detail to the disgraceful mischaracterisation of our organisation, and of Celtic supporters who have lost confidence in this board, in due course. For now, if Dermot Desmond believes threats and bluster will silence opposition and allow him to return to presiding over Celtic’s decline undisturbed from the golf course, he is sadly mistaken.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast