There are moments in Scottish football when silence is not an option. When a club must defend its people, its players, its staff, its reputation. When leadership demands a spine. Celtic faced one of those moments at Ibrox in April 2022— and the board shrank from it.
Our city rivals disgraced themselves with the broken glass in Joe Hart’s penalty area.
Not a stray bottle. Not careless debris. Broken glass, deliberately thrown into a space where a goalkeeper must dive. A premeditated act of malice.
A truly disgusting attempt to injure a Celtic player and to gain sporting advantage by cheating and committing grievous bodily harm.
Any club with self‑respect would have erupted.
Celtic’s board barely whispered.
He must be weakest chief exec we have ever had not a cheep from him.
— John Hughes (@JohnHug54819762) April 9, 2024
A Physio Assaulted — And a Board Asleep
At the same match came the sickening assault on Danny Friel, a Celtic physio struck on the head by a missile launched from the stand. By a hospitality client.
A member of Celtic’s staff was violently attacked while doing his job.
And what did Celtic’s leadership do?
They did nothing.
No public fury, no demand for lifetime bans. No insistence on accountability, no defence of their own employee.
Their silence was not diplomacy. It was dereliction.
Celtic’s reaction? Michael Nicholson set about getting increased away ticket allocations for the most toxic fixture in Scotland.
In January of this year he welcomed The Billy Boys into Celtic Park while 250 innocent Season Ticket holders were suspended.
The SFA’s False Equivalence — Enabled by Celtic’s Weakness
The farce reached its apogee this week when the SFA handed equal punishment to Celtic and the Ibrox Tribute Act for the March riot.
Celtic supporters entered the pitch spontaneously to celebrate a dramatic victory. As did Dunfermline fans the previous day when they beat Aberdeen. As did bears in the Govan Stand to celebrate the handball ‘goal’ from Manny Fernandez.
Home supporters entered the pitch from three sides of the stadium masked, organised, and looking for violence.
For one set of fans it was exuberance. With the other it was aggression.
Yet the SFA, ever eager to avoid confrontation, declared them identical.
A grotesque false equivalence — and one made possible by Celtic’s chronic refusal to challenge anything.
When you never defend yourself, you teach the bullies that you won’t fight back. Celtic’s board has spent years proving exactly that.
Nicholson & Wilson: The Architects of Silence
CEO Nicholson and Chairman Brian Wilson have become the faces of Celtic’s institutional timidity. Cowards.
They seem to believe that silence is strategy, that refusing to defend the club is professionalism, that hiding behind corporate language is leadership.
It is none of those things, it is weakness. It is laziness, it is cowardice.
Their refusal to confront the behaviour of their Ibrox business partners is not restraint — it is failure.
Their refusal to challenge the SFA is not diplomacy — it is negligence.
Refusal to defend players and staff is not calmness — it is abandonment. Duty of care Michael?
Celtic supporters deserve leaders who fight for the club, not poltroons who hide from conflict. Who roll into Ibrox advertising business for their mate Douglas Park.
Celtic- A Club That Needs a Voice
Celtic is not a minor institution. It is not a guest in Scottish football. It is one of its pillars. Yet the board behaves as if speaking up would be impolite. As if defending the club would be unbecoming. As if protecting Celtic’s people is optional.
It is not optional. It is the job.
And if Nicholson and Wilson cannot do it — if they cannot find the courage to confront violence, bias, and injustice — then Celtic must find leaders who will.
The Final Word
Celtic supporters have carried this club through decades of adversity. They have shown courage, resilience, and loyalty. It is time the board showed even a fraction of that strength.
The silence must end. The excuses must end. The cowardice must end.
Celtic deserves better — and it deserves it now.
At the 2019 Celtic AGM Peter Lawwell laughed as he replied that he hadn’t read the 2012 Five Way Agreement. Celtic have been on mute and hostage to that document since July 2012.
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The only thing Nicholson is World Class at is likely to be the worst CEO in the World
— JimLeitrim2 (@JimLeitrim2) August 30, 2026
