David Low has claimed that there is a split in the Celtic boardroom against the Desmond’s.
Only Dermot is a Non-Executive Director but at the 2025 AGM his son Ross delivered an incendiary speech that made a difficult situation almost impossible.
Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay have to deal with that fall out on a daily basis. They are the public face of the club.
Dermot and Ross are more likely to turn up at St Andrew’s than at Celtic Park. Neither have put in a Directors Box appearance this season.
Low has been around Celtic since the early nineties, assisting Fergus McCann as the old guard of the White’s and Kelly’s reluctantly handed over power.
That change was forced by financial matters with the Bank of Scotland looking for iron-cast guarantees on their growing Celtic overdraft.
The finances in 2026 are completely different but the feelings of fans towards the Desmond’s is similar to the anger against the Kelly’s and White’s
Nicholson, McKay and Wilson are well rewarded in terms of salary for their work at Celtic.
Wilson puts in a few hours a week away from attacking the Scottish Government and collects £120,000 a year plus first class hospitality any time he likes.
Nicholson and McKay drain £1.5m a year from the club. Outside of Celtic they’d need to be working 60 hour weeks to take home half of that salary as a ‘leading sports lawyer’ and an accountant.
THE FIRST SIGNS OF DISSENT INSIDE THE BUBBLE OF THE CELTIC BOARDROOM
Now it seems that there may be a crack in the boardroom unity.
Nicholson and McKay may be getting sick of the matchday posters and abuse hurled in their direction.
They are effectively following outside instructions, being well paid and in the firing line.
Low gets the impression that some inside the Celtic board aren’t coping with the outside hostility.
A year ago they had Chairman Lawwell to shield them from the flack as they quietly drained their salaries out of Celtic.
They allowed Desmond to publish they highly damaging statement about Brendan Rodgers. They take the fall out and flack for it.
Nicholson and McKay know that the Takeover Panel could soon be investigating the Section 9 waiver granted to Desmond in 2006. Their own professionalism could be called into question.
On matchdays it is Nicholson and McKay in the line of attack. Low gets the impression that the non dynamic duo are beginning to question if it is really worthwhile following instructions delivered from distant golf courses.
I tell you what is fractured and fragmented that is the board and the support. I’d say that the Desmond family, and remember I was around at the time, is much more isolated and toxic than the Whites and the Kelly’s ever were.
And that’s a very difficult situation to get out of. I think that’s where the schism is. It’s between the the support and the Desmond’s in particular.
And that that’s something that is evident to all Celtic supporters, they just have different ways of articulating that displeasure with the board and the Desmond’s. But it’s very similar to the White’s and the Kelly’s.
They’re isolated. They’re banning fan media in record numbers, you know, they’re banning mainstream media personalities in record numbers. They’re engaged in collective punishment of the North Curve.
This usually leads to nowhere and this usually leads to the end for of the perpetrators. You can’t tell when, you can’t tell how but that is an unsustainable situation as far as I’m concerned.
Tellingly Low then added:
So that’s where the schism lies. And I’ve also good reason to believe, you know, some of those views are pertinent within the boardroom, but they don’t have the they don’t have the latitude to say what I say.
A year ago Low was involved in the setting up of Celtic Supporters Limited. He is one of four directors in the firm.
At the 2026 AGM the Board have backed a Resolution from CSL to engage Georgeson to track down and reactive dormant shares. It is believed that 20% of Celtic shares are currently viewed as dormant, cutting off upto 20,000 shareholders.
Naturally CSL hope that they can attract the proxy votes of many of those shareholdings.
AGM 2026 COULD ACCELERATE A BOARDROOM SPLIT
Tellingly CSL won’t be voting against the reappointments of Nicholson, Wilson, McKay, Brian Rose and Sharon Brown. They will be withholding support for Dermot Desmond and Mark Keane.
The voting power of the CSL will have no impact on the vote but it does help to fracture the current board.
Although they happily hand over power to Desmond individually all the current Directors are powerful figures.
If Nicholson ever grew a backbone he could lead Celtic in a different direction. He might also face an EGM calling for his removal as CEO.
If Nicholson, McKay and Wilson started working independently, in the best interest of the club they may be able to salvage something of their rock bottom reputations.
With a fortnight to go until the AGM all sorts of plots are likely to surface.
A split in the board would be especially significant.
The bottom line is the bottom line for Nicholson and McKay. Self preservation is what they are about.
Obviously there is no future role for either inside a progressive, ambitious and modern Celtic. But they might just be able to salvage some credibility if they were finally to do the right thing for the club rather than simply follow outside orders.
Select Celtic365 as a “Preferred Source” on Google News for prompts to the independent news and opinions that you respect.
RELATED READING
CLICK HERE for the two faces of Andy Halliday are exposed.
CLICK HERE for Nicholson is paid FOUR TIMES as much as the Benfica CEO
