If the past few days have shown anything, it is that the Celtic Fans Collective is neither a gimmick nor a passing burst of online protest. It is a movement with organisation, clarity and nerve…
One by one, the Collective has turned its attention to the pillars of Celtic’s corporate structure, first the long-serving Non-Executive Directors, then Dermot Desmond, then Peter Lawwell, and now, on the eve of the AGM, the CEO himself.
Today, Michael Nicholson joined the list of senior figures publicly told that his time at Celtic “has expired.”
The latest statement is blistering, and not in the performative sense. This is not anger for anger’s sake. It is precise, detailed and grounded in frustrations that have been building across the support for years.
The Collective wrote.
“Michael Nicholson’s position as CEO is no longer credible. His tenure has been defined by weak leadership, poor communication and an inability to articulate any meaningful vision for Celtic. At a time when the club needs clarity, confidence and ambition, Nicholson has looked out of his depth. He promised supporters that he wants Celtic to be ‘world class in everything we do’. Under his guidance, the club is mediocre in almost all areas.
A Celtic CEO should be visible, authoritative and capable of engaging openly with supporters. Nicholson’s unwillingness to communicate has left the fanbase feeling ignored, detached and devalued. His record on fan issues is appalling.
These shortcomings were brutally exposed at the meeting with the Celtic Fans Collective. He struggled to answer basic questions, failed to explain the club’s direction and appeared completely overwhelmed by the demands of the role. His lack of ambition was underlined further when he stated he believed Celtic’s recent European record is satisfactory.
Celtic needs a leader who is ambitious, communicative and relentless in pushing the continual improvement of all aspects of the club. Instead, we have a CEO who aims low, accepts mediocrity and is normalising regression at a club that should demand far higher standards than he is delivering.
Michael – your time at Celtic has expired.”
If the statement aimed at Lawwell was dramatic, this latest salvo hits even harder. The boardroom can sometimes shield itself behind strategy and distance, but the CEO sits differently. He is the face of the executive, the operational leader, the person expected to stand in front of supporters, articulate direction and accept responsibility. When a CEO is unseen, unheard or unconvincing, the whole structure sags.
And the truth is, the evidence has been mounting for some time.
Nicholson has presided over a period where communication with supporters has become startlingly sparse. Months will pass without a word from the CEO. When he does appear, the messaging is bland, unfocused and often evasive. It is a leadership posture that belongs in the days before fan media, before 24-hour digital scrutiny, before supporters held the club accountable in real time.
There was a moment, in the early days of his tenure, when it felt possible Nicholson might modernise the CEO role. He spoke of ambition, of world-class standards, of aligning Celtic with contemporary football operations. But as time passed, those promises evaporated.
And then came the meeting with the Celtic Fans Collective.
Those present described a CEO short of answers, short of conviction and, crucially, short of authority. When Nicholson declared that Celtic’s European record — the weakest in modern club history — was “satisfactory,” something shifted. Not simply a disagreement over standards, but a realisation that the man at the helm of Celtic’s day-to-day operations did not seem to grasp what Celtic must aspire to.
The Collective has interpreted the problem not as personal but structural. Nicholson operates in the shadow of a dominant shareholder who has repeatedly intervened directly in sporting and operational matters. The now-infamous Desmond statement after Brendan Rodgers’ resignation exposed that dynamic in the clearest terms. When the dominant shareholder uses club channels to attack an outgoing manager, what power remains in the hands of the CEO?
In that sense, Nicholson is being judged not only on what he has failed to do, but on what he has been unable to do.
The Celtic Fans Collective sees a pattern, a board that is not independent, a chairman who is not impartial, and a CEO who is not empowered. Their conclusion is blunt, if the structure is broken, those who uphold it must change.
The timing of this latest call is no coincidence. The AGM is tomorrow. The board will want to avoid scrutiny, to steer the discussion toward safe ground, perhaps even reheating the Green Brigade ban to dominate the agenda. The Collective wants the opposite. They want the spotlight fixed on leadership, governance, competence and ambition. They want a discussion about Celtic’s future, not a distraction about its loudest supporters.
And in pushing Nicholson into the centre of that conversation, they have ensured the AGM cannot simply be a referendum on the North Curve. It must confront the direction of the entire club.
What happens next is difficult to predict. The bloc votes will carry resolutions as they always do. Desmond’s influence will remain. The current board may try to project continuity and calm.
But the atmosphere has changed. The support is speaking in one voice. The Celtic Fans Collective is showing an organisation and strategic clarity rarely seen in Scottish football. And the targets of their criticism are no longer fringe figures, they are the chairman, the CEO and the dominant shareholder.
Celtic sits at the edge of something significant. It could be the beginning of overdue renewal, it could be the entrenchment of the old order. But whichever path is taken, tomorrow’s AGM will not be quiet, comfortable or forgettable. And Michael Nicholson is now at the centre of a storm Celtic can no longer ignore.
Niall J
With the AGM approaching, the Celtic Fans Collective are putting the spotlight on every board member standing for re-election.
Next up – Michael Nicholson pic.twitter.com/w13CTBzInm
— Celtic Fans Collective (@CFC_Collective) November 20, 2025
There is undoubtedly an expiration of presence in Paradise.
This expiration however ir the so-called “Supporters Group” who have become an embarrassment to not only the club, but to themselves also. Of course, what doesn’t help is ehen jokers who call themselves “journalists” like the writer of columns like this, actually support their protestations, instead of doing what “real” journalists would do, and lay out both sides, allowing the public to choose who they actually side with!
So I see the expiry for the very disruptive “Celtic Fan Collective”, all “so-called” journalists who are actually protester supporting media writers, and the gullible among you.
The club made a great start getting rid of one toxic influencer recently, now that Rodgers has finally gone, we can do a proper cleansing and get REAL Celtic fans who SUPPORT THEIR FAVORITE TEAM AND CLUB.
C’mon Michael – that post was too transparent.
lol
Power like that which is being exhibited by the Celtic boardroom and self styled owner is intrinsically bad.. The same kind of power that denies any criticism or reflection. The collective wish a situation where there is debate, openness and clarity.from all involved – in other words, discussion.
In another excellent post by Eric Knott today, the club was compared to the Titanic. Too many people are just followers, like lemmings, going anywhere the master tells them (Yes Joe, you are one of them). We know what happened to the Titanic and unless the club changes course now the result will be absolutely catastrophic.
This requires the utterly selfish, dictatorial, contemptuous board and the pompous and self-entitled DD to listen and take into account the thoughts and feelings of those who put their hard earned cash into the club. You are the gullible one here Joe. Grow up
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Joe. Who do you think you’re speaking for when you talk about ‘real’ Celtic fans? The Celtic Fans Collective are real Celtic fans whether a cringing board apologist like yourself likes it or not. Real Celtic fans can see a world famous club dragged down to mediocrity on the field, where we now get knocked out of Europe by unknown Kazakh clubs then humped by opposition in a lesser tournament and it doesn’t even feel like a surprise. Why? Because many clubs such as these in smaller footballing nations and with less money have a more modern ethos and vision that’s why. We’ve been left behind fiddling on hopeful punts. The boardroom structure and decision making is from a laughably bygone age at Celtic. Out of touch retired financiers in club ties treating the supporters with contempt and overruled by a septuagenarian golf playing absentee landlord with a majority sharehold. Guesswork haphazard recruitment of players. Millions squandered on project players. An ageing stadium in need of more than some cheap plastic banners stuck outside. Also, I don’t see anywhere in this article where the writer claims to be a journalist. It’s a valid piece and one the majority of REAL Celtic supporters would agree with. So what’s your problem Joe, Mr self proclaimed real Celtic fan?
While totally agreeing with the article it is a sad fact that 50.1 % of shares carries any vote .
They ,owner and his board,can and probably will, totally ignore the Collective!
Make no mistake, the dominant shareholder considers the club his play thing .
It is sad .
However not a surprise.🍀
The guy joe a clown or a hun tho probably both!! What utter nonsense!! Oh in clown shoe ( joe) that ” toxic” Manager is the best since big Jock!! You utter fool!! He normalised Trebles and brought 20,000 fans back that stayed!! Filled every game at hampden and was responsible for the hts before brendan it was 10 ,000 in cup games and hampden half empty and semi finals! He built and an invincible team that went 69 games unbeaten to!! You utter knob!! Is your name lawell you charlatan now f##k off!! Change is coming get over to cqn or the hun site you came from you knobend
Brian that clown joe know Celtic fan!! If he is he not one in reality!! An utter clown there is 10s of thousands in the collective and many 100,thousands more that want change!! And back the GB also! Any fool can se the GB are being used to create division and no wonder the arseholes on that board think they can do this with ” good twos” like joe well if he actually is a Celtic fan but he one these clowns that ” knows his place” no doubt and think arseholes like lawell have been good for our club when in reality they held us back big time!! They created nothing but inherited everything!! And without Brendan they be no money in the bank!! Or the staduim well the 3 quarters we and Fergus built!! They done nothing in the 27 years since!! But bean count and sell any decent player we had!! Normalised mediocrity and allowed the poison of ibrox to cheat and have no titles stripped!! They need gone as does fuds like joe!!
No Celtic fan I meant obviously!