For too long, one question has hung over Celtic Football Club.
Why does one minority shareholder appear to have so much influence over football decisions?
Dermot Desmond owns around 34.5% of Celtic plc, making him the largest individual shareholder. But he is not the owner of Celtic. He does not legally run the club.
That responsibility belongs to the Board of Directors, who have a legal duty to act in the best interests of Celtic plc as a whole—not in the interests of one influential shareholder.
Yet the perception remains that nothing significant happens without Desmond’s approval. If that is the reality, then what is the point of having a Chairman, Chief Executive and Board?
The Supporters Fund Celtic
One of the biggest myths surrounding Celtic is that Dermot Desmond finances the football club.
He doesn’t.
Celtic’s transfer budgets, wages and investment are funded by the club’s own income, generated through:
- Season tickets
- Match tickets
- Champions League revenue
- Merchandise
- Sponsorship
- Commercial deals
- Player sales
- Celtic TV
The supporters are the people who continually finance Celtic.
Meanwhile, Dermot Desmond does not personally inject his own wealth into the football club. Through his preference shares, millions of pounds have flowed from Celtic to Dermot Desmond over the years.
Enough Is Enough
No shareholder should be allowed to dominate the direction of Celtic Football Club.
If the Board is making independent decisions, it should say so. If it is simply following the wishes of one powerful shareholder, then it is failing in the duty it owes to the club and every shareholder.
The supporters have invested more into Celtic than anyone else. They fill Celtic Park, buy the shirts, renew the season tickets, follow the team across Europe and generate the revenue that keeps the club alive.
Celtic is not Dermot Desmond’s plaything. It belongs to its supporters. It is time the Board started acting like it.
All this carry on from the fans sack the board who is going to do it? They are like the monarchy a law unto themselves.
Sadly, there’s only two options open to Celtic fans if we are to assure ourselves of meaningful strategic change/regime change and both are either exceptionally unlikely, or profoundly unpopular.
The first and cleanest route to effect change is to buy out those large shareholders who are clearly holding us back, yes Mr Desmond we mean you!
That however would take some exceptionally deep pockets & even then it would need to meet with a willingness on those shareholders part to sell their holding.
Even then, the club would need to be hollowed out & that is no small task…we would be looking at progressional change, Rome was not built in a day!
The second option, as I said, is unpalatable at best, a non-starter more accurately.
It would require the fans to act in unison to starve the club of all its customers cash…no season tickets, no merchandise & no digital engagement. Absolutely no transaction would be permissible. It would be attritional, extremely messy & would certainly set the club back further…it is however the cheapest & most dependable option open to us common Celtic fans. As I said, it would be hugely unpopular, it is in fact, the nuclear option.
Sadly, that appears to draw a line under the options open to our fans. Sure, some unforeseen circumstances may arise & things may change but as of now, the nuclear option versus either a genuine billionaire, or a well intentioned Celtic supporting consortium with access to great financial resourcing, who really want to rffect change.