Celtic Fans Collective and Green Brigade respond to Brian Wilson’s political manoeuvring | OneFootball

Brian Wilson last night resorted to the dark arts of politics to try to affect the effectiveness on tomorrow’s boycott that has been called by the Celtic Fans Collective after the supporters group met on Tuesday evening…

Celtic interim Chairman Brian Wilson looks on during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on February 01, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The former Westminster politician featured in a Celtic TV video last night and rather ambiguously stated that he had now reached out to supporters groups. We can confirm that this does NOT include the Celtic Fans Collective but has now contacted The Green Brigade.

Presumably Wilson has reverted to the previous methods of communicating directly with the various supporters associations (CSA, Affiliation, AICSC etc) with a divide and conquer strategy aimed at undermining the Celtic Fans Collective. No Celtic fan media, including The Celtic Star, have been contacted.

Last night The Celtic Star learned that The Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters Clubs (AICSC) voted to leave the Collective and has thereafter advised individual clubs within their organisation to re-join the collective at their own discretion amid unhappiness that they only had one vote for all their members combined while individual independent CSCs all had one vote each.

Today the Collective posted this update while Martin O’Neill addressed the matter at his own media conference ahead of tomorrow’s late afternoon Scottish Cup fourth round match against Dundee at Celtic Park.

The Celtic Fans Collective stated:

“Last night Celtic Football Club released a video of interim Chair, Brian Wilson calling for unity and suggesting he was keen to engage with all Celtic supporter groups.

There had been no discussions between the club and fans beforehand, and emails were sent to several organisations shortly before the club’s release, though the Collective has not been contacted directly.<

“Given that the Celtic board has largely ignored fan communications for months, this demonstrates the impact that the call for the boycott of Saturday’s match is already having.

“We remain keen to engage with representatives of the club to make progress on the issues that matter most to supporters. However, as things stand, there has been no change around the three key issues previously outlined:

* The removal of Michael Nicholson as CEO.

* The reinstatement of the Green Brigade.

* Lifting restrictions placed on fan media.

“Therefore, Saturday’s boycott will proceed as planned. We call on Celtic supporters to send a clear message to the board this weekend by joining this boycott to help deliver the change that is required at our club.”

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The Green Brigade this afternoon confirmed that they have now been contacted by Celtic after the club ignored their requests for meeting over many months. The Green Brigade however are fully committed to the Celtic Fans Collective and believe that the meeting should be between the Collective and the club. Clearly NOT what Brian Wilson and the Celtic Board are planning.

Here’s the full statement from The Green Brigade…

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Here’s a reminder on what Brian Wilson had to say last night in his hastily arranged interview with Gerry McCulloch on Celtic TV…

“Turbulent,” was how Wilson described his first month as interim Celtic chairman. He continued: “On the positive side, on the field of player, which is where it really matters. Thanks to Martin, Shaun, the players and everyone behind them, it’s been a really positive month.

“We’re in a situation where winning the league title is in our own hands again. It didn’t look like that around a month ago.

Michael Nicholson and Brian Wilson. Auchinleck Talbot v Celtic, Scottish Cup 4th Round, Rugby Park. Sunday 18 January 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou ( The Celtic Star)

“On the transfer window, it doesn’t really matter what I think, but the manager is positive about it. It’s all to play for, and that’s the main thing for the club at any time.

“On the strategic changes that I spoke about, that work in ongoing. It’s been side-tracked by the focus of the past few weeks on the transfer window. It’s very much active and going ahead – we’ll have quite a lot to say about that in the near future.

“Obviously, on the immediate issues of supporters, the frustrations, and in some cases, the problems that exist there, there hasn’t been as much progress as I’d like to see. That’s something that we’re going to turn our attention to.

“I spoke about unity, and I spoke about unity within the stadium. I don’t expect that suddenly, all of the issues go away. What I did ask for was unity behind the team, which is what I think the majority of Celtic supporters would like to see.

“So, let’s sort out these other issues. I am in no way dismissing or marginalising them. On the contrary, we want to engage with them. But the short-term imperative is to support the team. It’s up to each individual to determine whether a boycott outside or inside the stadium helps that.

“I accept there hasn’t been as much engagement as I would’ve liked over the past month for a range of reasons, but most recently because of the focus on the transfer window.

“We have reached out. We’ve reached out to every supporters’ group and I hope these meetings will take place within the next week or so. Let’s see if we can go forward. There is no reluctance on my part to engage, and I hope that can be put into practice soon.

“Unity inside of the stadium is one thing. We’re not going to agree on everything on some of these issues, but we can talk about them. But don’t let it distract from what’s going on inside the stadium. That’s all I’m asking for.

“What I want to see if a full Celtic Park with a great atmosphere and everybody behind the team. That’s what I’ve experienced over the decades of going to Celtic Park.

“I was in the centre of Glasgow last night. I bumped into four young boys who, I guess, would’ve at the weekend been standing up saying they hated the board. They recognised me, we had a good conversation. I explained some of our difficulties in addressing these issues, they listened, they gave their point of view, and at the end of the day, they said ‘Thanks for listening,’ and I said ‘Thanks for talking to me’. I think if I could do that for every Celtic supporter inside of the ground we’d reach the same mutually respectful conclusion.

“That’s not quite possible, but it’s the kind of model I want to see. We focus a lot on particular groups of supporters, but there’s thousands of Celtic supporters inside the ground. Many of them, as they expressed, feel the same frustrations about communication and knowing what’s going on at the club.

“That’s the channel that I want to develop over these next few weeks. Of course, with each individual group, but also the broad mass of Celtic supporters and give them what they are totally and reasonably asking for, which is information and understanding to seeing us back to where we should be which is a full stadium behind the team.”

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Meanwhile Martin O’Neill at his media conference this afternoon said:

Q: Martin, there seems to be a sort of backing amongst supporters groups behind a boycott for this weekend’s game, against the board. I just wonder, your sort of understanding of that, do you understand where the supporters are coming from? And the other side of it, how important is it in a title race that the club gets maximum support from the fans?

Martin O’Neill: “Well, naturally, it’s not a great thing. It’s been happening now since certainly going back probably to late August time, if not before that. So it’s something a bit new. I thought that way back when I was managing my very first time here, there was a great togetherness. Hence 75,000 fans descending on Seville for the final. Those things are gone. It’s a new era. And what I would like, if it’s at all possible, if there were some meetings, which I think Mr. Wilson said was going to take place, which is really, that’s a big step forward, I think. And I think he said himself, we might not agree with everything, but let’s find out. Let’s find out what all the ailments are and let’s see if we can rectify some of them. Because going forward, the club will trip itself up if that’s the case.

Brian Wilson, Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“I know my first spell here, and I meant it really, even though it was in a sort of a jocular fashion, that maybe the likes of Daizen Maeda and people like this here wouldn’t be worried too much about what’s been shouted across over the pitch. But eventually it’s debilitating. And it does affect people, I know. Celtic have always prided themselves in a sort of togetherness. And it is strange really for it to be in this shape. So we do need the fans in.

“I think you saw John McGlynn speaking way back, taking Falkirk here, saying that the atmosphere can turn toxic pretty quickly, if that’s the case. And that’s not something you want to hear from opposition managers, if you feel that that’s the case. I don’t know, maybe these meetings might take too late before tomorrow’s game, but if they’re talking about some sort of show at Stuttgart, I think we should try and have some sort of talks before then.”

Q: Is that important, that you feel those meetings, there is a middle ground or a solution met as quickly as possible for the good of the club?

A dejected Celtic manager Martin O’Neill after the UEFA Cup Final match between Celtic and FC Porto held on May 21, 2003 at the Estadio Olimpico in Seville, Spain. FC Porto won the match and trophy 3-2 after extra-time. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Martin O’Neill: “Well, you know, there should be a middle ground. There has to be a middle ground somewhere along the way. It has to be, how quickly we can reach that there is probably in the lap of the gods. But yeah, it would just be nice to know what all of the complaints are about, and the club’s attempt at least to rectify those.”

Watch Martin O’Neill’s pre-match media conference below…

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