Willie Haughey is set to give an in-depth interview to ACSOM on Friday to clear up his recent views on Celtic.
Last Tuesday the former Celtic Director appeared on the Go Radio Football Show where one word jumped out as he discussed the current issues and supporter unrest.
Haughey used the word spoiled in relation to the Celtic support while defending the success delivered by Dermot Desmond.
No-one claims that Bob Kelly delivered the 1967 European Cup and the most successful period in Celtic’s history.
The Daily Record and The Sun both picked up on the spoiled comment and defence of Desmond, interestingly Haughey phoned back into Go Radio on Wednesday where he was more critical of the way that Celtic is run.
Haughey was part of the team brought together by Fergus McCann in 1994 that ousted the old board dominated by the Kelly and White families.
In April 1997 he was sacked as a Director by McCann having declined the option to resign, since then he has been involved at Livingston and Queens Park but remains a regular in the Directors Box at Celtic Park.
I’ve now seen a number of pundits and ex pro pushing the line the fans are unhappy because the club missed out on the CL this year. Completely missing the point of the bigger picture of lack of vision, planning and execution. I wonder were they getting this agenda from?🤔
— . (@pnic6ol) September 23, 2025
SELF MADE
Unlike the accountants and lawyers that are on the Celtic board Haughey is a self made businessman, building City Refrigeration up from scratch into one of the biggest companies in Scotland with interests throughout the UK.
That sort of background is sadly lacking on the Celtic board where contempt for the customers seems the default position.
Led by the Green Brigade and now backed by over 400 strands of the Celtic support seven questions were asked towards the end of August about a variety of issues surrounding the club.
Since that was published senior figures inside the club ran squealing to The Sun about Brendan Rodgers engineering his exit followed up by a ridiculous statement that no-one was prepared to put their name to.
Faced with protests at successive away matches Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay have opted to study their phones rather than engage with the concerns of the entitled customers.
DOMESTIC SUCCESS
There is no doubt that Celtic are going through their most dominant period of domestic success but with their only realistic rivals founded in 2012 it is hardly earth shattering news.
When Jock Stein was winning nine-in-a-row Scottish clubs were going deep into European competitions, in 1967 Kilmarnock were in the semi-final of the Fairs Cup with Rangers reaching the final of the Cup Winners Cup where they lost to Bayern Munich. The icing on the cake for many.
Having inherited a 60,000 seater stadium that instantly provides a £10m a year financial advantage over the Ibrox Tribute Act the Celtic board have a built-in advantage towards domestic success.
EUROPEAN FAILURE
On the continent Celtic have only twice won more than one Champions League matches in the same season over the last 15 seasons.
Between October 2013 and December 2023 they failed to win a home match in the Champions League, defeat to Kairat Amaty was the fifth successive time that Celtic had failed to get through a Champions League qualifier.
Celtic fans don’t expect to be matching Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG and Liverpool in Europe but Club Brugge provide an achievable benchmark.
With a stadium capacity of 29,500 the Belgian side have been in the knock-out matches in the Champions League in seven of the last eight seasons.
Haughey is someone who can relate to the Celtic support, and has strong connections to Brendan Rodgers and Desmond.
Given a full hour of discussion ACSOM on Friday looks like essential viewing.
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