26th April 2025; Tannadice Park, Dundee, Scotland; Scottish Premiership Football, Dundee United versus Celtic;
Last Monday 120 Celtic fans were given two and a half hours to question and hear the thoughts of the most senior people at the club.
Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay and Brian Wilson led an executive group from the club down to Greenock.
Martin O’Neill apparently found out about the meeting at the 11th hour and insisted on going along.
Overnight on Monday into Tuesday more detail surfaced of the secret meeting.
Some alarming detail emerged as well as the old favourites. The club was eager to improve communication with fans, lessons had been learned and of course everyone at the club is a huge Celtic supporter. Truly devoted to the club whether they are earning £19,000 a week or less.
Late on Tuesday morning Celtic realised that they had to comment on the meeting.
According to ‘interim’ Chairman Wilson the questions were hard but fair, the club announced:
Members from Greenock, Port Glasgow, Gourock, Johnny Doyle, Port Glasgow Hibs and Largs clubs were among around 120 Celtic supporters who attended to seek information and voice concerns.
Martin O’Neill joined interim chairman Brian Wilson, chief executive Michael Nicholson, chief financial officer Chris McKay and other club officials in a two-and-a-half-hour question and answer session.
Great for the 120 invited fans. Strangely, they are given greater access to the club leaders than shareholders. Two and a half hours of questioning.
The last time that a shareholder was able to ask a face to face question was on 20 November 2024.
LAWWELL DOMINATES THE CELTIC AGM
With Peter Lawwell chairing the AGM there was a lot of deflecting and screening involved.
One question asked to Nicholson was met with the claim that the shareholder had an unhealthy obsession with the Chairman and his family! Most would call it scrutiny.
At the AGM the questioning is generally limited to around 45 minutes.
Anyone going down memory lane or asking obscure questions about puddles outside the stadium or postponing matches due to a bus strike is fully indulged.
Asking detailed questions about employees getting attacked at Ibrox or the suitability of the Chairman’s son for a high powered recruitment role and you’ll be met with hostility.
At the 2025 AGM Lawwell wasn’t even capable of chairing the meeting beyond the hour mark.
Some suspect that he was afraid to let shareholders question Nicholson.
THE ROSS DESMOND SPEECH
Lawwell did find time to invite Ross Desmond to verbally attack anti-establishment fans.
Desmond Mini also explained to fans that competing in European football was no longer possible despite Bodo Glimt, Club Brugge and Qarabag reaching the top 24 in the Champions League.
On the back of their trip to Greenock surely shareholders should be granted the same access to those steering the club?
Maybe two hours of answering hard but fair questions?
Having missed out entirely on questioning the club at the 2025 AGM shareholders are entitled to expect at least the same access as the fans at the Greenock meeting.
Alongside the AGM on December 1 Celtic have arranged a morning General Meeting to push through procedural issues including the option to host the AGM online.
With their new found enthusiasm for meeting customers Celtic shareholders are more than deserving of two hours hearing directly from the Board.
We hear from Martin O’Neill several times every week.
Two hours of Nicholson, McKay and Wilson once a year shouldn’t be beyond a club that pays out more than £1.5m a year to a CEO and CFO that has twice failed to get through Champions League qualifiers against unseeded opponents.
