29 Nov 2025 09:31:35
A possible long term solution to Celtic's current predicament might be moving toward a fan ownership model.
For that to happen, I think fan groups and Dermot Desmond would need to reconcile their differences and find a workable agreement. One idea could be that Desmond commits not to issue any new shares and agrees to sell his stake to a fan trust over time. In return, fans reduce the hostility and allow him to continue running the club as he has been until the trust acquires his full shareholding. The fan trust would then work on acquiring enough additional shares either through purchasing from existing shareholders or coordinating voting rights among the 25 percent held by individual fans to reach at least 51 percent ownership.
This is not a simple process financially or administratively, but it could create a pathway toward meaningful fan influence.
What do people think? Is something like this realistic, or are there better routes toward fan ownership?
29 Nov 2025 10:49:19
snds brilliant joe. desmond sell us yer shares the noo n we will stop being hostile.
29 Nov 2025 11:38:51
WeeJoe, don't get me wrong I know nothing about finances and the like. But your idea made me laugh.
29 Nov 2025 11:43:20
What do you suggest?
Fans and board are at loggerheads and neither look like budging. Obviously my suggestion is hinged on Desmond selling his shares to a fans collective but at least it would end hostility quickly and get everyone back on board.
29 Nov 2025 11:54:46
In Joe's defence it's the most logical reply to what sack the board actually means, member ownership is a thing, I'd rather rely on a dd type maj owner myself, if dd backs the new manager, brings success, and ultimately at some point reforms at board level, changes won't be needed in my view, this whole saga should serve as a warning / lesson to him.
29 Nov 2025 12:13:03
I should also say that the fans collective have protests planned for upcoming matches and that the longer this rolls on, the more damage it will do.
29 Nov 2025 13:10:54
Yeah, let's have the guys who run the green brigade run my beloved club as well…. Perish the thought!
{Ed007's Note - The Fans Collective is a lot more people than the GB, that's just what the board would like you to think.}
29 Nov 2025 13:41:47
You can't make an omelette with breaking eggs. Or changing the eggs if they are rotten. Is it going to be easy, no. Do we just stick our tail between our legs and shimmy away? Some of us at least think this is a fight for the very soul of our club. That to me is worth fighting for. The absokute disgrace of our board at the AGM. The way they refused to go to questions, instead forcing shareholders to watch a look at how great we are video, 15 minutes long.
Then that utter cant, the billionaire sprog. castigating supporters who pay for everything, was scandalous. You might bend over a table and many others seem to be the same. Everyone I know, would rather pick that table up and feckin deck them with it. The fight goes on. Pick a side. And just like the 90's, we will remember those who said the same thing.
29 Nov 2025 13:52:37
You do realise that Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, for example, are owned collectively by their members. That doesn't mean the ultras are sitting on the board making every decision.
Yes, the fans would be the majority shareholders, but the board would still be made up of fully qualified professionals. The difference is that those people would be accountable to the fans. They'd have to answer our questions, and the whole structure would encourage more transparency and better communication.
29 Nov 2025 15:44:25
No1 thing for me would be a fan collective elected rep out right on board, someone speaking for fans, reporting back to fans, being inside etc, that would come with great responsibility as you can't have someone spilling the beans on everything, but someone trusted by collective and knows something regards boardroom activity would do,
29 Nov 2025 17:08:25
I can understand what Weejoe is saying in an ideal world but we don't live in an ideal world. i'm thinking, having lived many years in Rome, that the 5 stars movement, created as a result of frustration with the established political parties, were in my opinion a very good opposition party and helped a lot to keep the governing parties honest but when they came to power they were tragic. I say this because perhaps the real power of the fans collective is to keep pressure on the board to keep them honest as perhaps if they were the governing body they would be worse than what we have now.
I do think though that everyone has to be accountabile. If the manager does bad the board can sack him but who can sack the board - surely the shareholders. Maybe limiting the number of shares anyone can hold so no individual has a lot of power. Even that isn't ideal as there are times (when we agree) when we can be grateful that one person has the power to move forward and we avoid a hung parliament.
To sum up there is no easy answer. For me the best is dialogue and everyone on the same page.
29 Nov 2025 17:59:24
As much as it sounds a good idea, DD will never sell his shares and has said he will pass them to his son, who is on record as saying he will never sell them and will pass them down.
They are treating our club like an heirloom, something their family owns, which it isnt.
The harder we fight, the more they will dig in. This will only ever resolve is if DD realises he isn't doing what's best for our club and implements the change we need, but how many of us can see that happening.
30 Nov 2025 07:48:13
Do deep down people want him too, he's presided over success imo, his board has served his purpose well and now needs reformed properly, surely a different way of thinking and reform can be suitable over selling shares and fan ownership/ new ownership and the risks and destabilising it may bring (may not )
30 Nov 2025 09:21:37
who are the faceless ones of the green brigade who are calling for change. Celtic football club have never been so successful in the last twenty years or had been secure financially, but we still do not and never will be able to compete with the elite because of nothing to do with the board outside of Scotland. We are second class and unless a messiah appears - from a fan of 75 years.
30 Nov 2025 10:34:51
I am not in the Green Brigade and have no affiliation with them, the same is true of my circle of friends and work colleagues. We all want change and have had enough of this board.
For the record you could argue we have not been as successful as we should have been as we more often than not fail to qualify from Champion's League qualifiers due to lack of investment. We have lost domestic titles and cups due to the board messing up. We also have a board that turns on its own fans and makes up lies to try and get others to turn on them. They appoint war criminals to our board and try and appoint fascist police officers to our staff. They also fail to pursue our main rivals when they cheat and swindle us out of money.
They are not fit for purpose and it is time they moved on, in my opinion.