The Celtic Star
·9 November 2025
Celtic’s speed in acting against Green Brigade took the breath away
Celtic’s speed in acting against Green Brigade took the breath away | OneFootball
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In a club where statements often arrive late and reluctantly, Celtic’s speed in moving against the Green Brigade after the Falkirk match almost took the breath away…
Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell, Dermot Desmond, largest shareholder and Michael Nicholson CEO are seen during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on October 29, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
In short order, letters were issued, bans confirmed, and a detailed statement published across official channels including in emails to every Celtic season ticket holder. It was swift, clinical, decisive, and, to some, also deeply suspicious.
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The club’s version of events was unambiguous. During a routine ticket check in the Rail Seating Section, a steward was assaulted, two police officers intervened, attempted to arrest the individual, and were obstructed by around a hundred supporters, many of them with their faces covered. Celtic called it a “coordinated and orchestrated action” to prevent an arrest, behaviour that was, the statement said, violent, threatening, and wholly unacceptable.
What jarred for some was the club’s decision to describe the incident as an assault rather than an alleged assault. In ordinary circumstances, that single word would wait for a court finding. By declaring it outright, Celtic positioned itself as the authority on fact before any investigation had concluded, a move that may reassure regulators but inevitably alienates those who expect due process.
The Green Brigade are seen during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Livingston FC at Celtic Park on December 23, 2023. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
On that basis, the club enforced a previously suspended sanction, banning Green Brigade members from three home and three away fixtures. Celtic stressed its duty to ensure the safety of all within the stadium and made clear it viewed this incident as a breach of the Rail Seating Section Code of Conduct.
On paper, it looked like procedure, but for many supporters, the timing, tone, and context told another story.
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Accounts from within the section paint a more complex picture. Supporters who were present describe the spark as minor, a fan returning to the stand at half-time, with a cup of water in each hand, was stopped by a steward during a ticket check, and attempted to stop him entering the stand by physically grabbing him.
The police then stepped in, physically restraining the supporter. From there, the situation escalated quickly. Those nearby, believing they were witnessing unnecessary force, rushed to intervene. In the crush of the narrow concourse, shouting and confusion followed, an officer pressed a panic button, and reinforcements arrived. Within moments, the supporter was free, the flashpoint over, and the match resumed.
Those close to the group insist the club’s footage tells only part of the story, showing the aftermath but not the escalation that caused it. They claim to hold their own images that show the supporter pinned by police and stewards. To them, this was a minor confrontation inflated into a crisis, the inevitable outcome of what they see as an increasingly tense, over-policed environment in the Rail Seating Section.
Celtic v Motherwell – Celtic Park Green Brigade protesters ahead of the cinch Premiership match between Celtic and Motherwell at Celtic Park, Saturday November 25, 2023. Photo Andrew Milligan
The same voices point to a breakdown in trust that predates this match. They say repeated attempts to raise concerns about stewarding and police presence were ignored. An earlier understanding, they claim, had kept police off the concourse to avoid flashpoints, but this season that policy changed. The new security regime, introduced under Head of Safety and Operations Mark Hargreaves, has, they argue, created an atmosphere of surveillance and provocation rather than safety.
Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that some supporters interpret the club’s response as punitive rather than protective, a coordinated effort between the club and Police Scotland to silence dissent under the cover of safety.
That accusation resonated because it fits a pattern that goes back years.
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The Celtic Board. Celtic Champions 2025. Dundee United v Celtic, 26 April 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star).
Tensions between the Celtic board and its most passionate supporters have simmered for several years. The Bernard Higgins saga of 2021, when fans mobilised to block the appointment of a former senior police officer to a club role, exposed deep mistrust about how the club views its own people. Supporters who had felt criminalised under the now-repealed Offensive Behaviour at Football Act saw the move as an insult.
Then came the 2023 suspension of the Green Brigade. Officially, it was about safety breaches and unauthorised movement inside the stadium. In practice, many saw it as punishment for pro-Palestinian displays. Serious allegations were floated at the time, threats to staff, break-ins, but nothing materialised, and the ban quietly lifted.
Each episode however left scars, each also widened the distance between the club’s hierarchy and the support it depends on.
When Mark Hargreaves was appointed this summer, many perhaps hoped for a reset. A former Chief Superintendent of Police Scotland and Assistant Inspector of Constabulary, he brought with him credentials and authority. What he didn’t bring, according to supporters, was empathy.
Under his tenure, policing around the standing section has intensified. Barriers and fences have appeared, ticket checks have multiplied, and police officers, once absent by mutual agreement, are now a regular presence on the concourse. Fans say it has changed the atmosphere entirely, to feeling edgy, suspicious, and confrontational.
The Green Brigade claim that at an August meeting, Hargreaves acknowledged the absence of any fair disciplinary process and promised to work with them to build one. Since then, however, the relationship has deteriorated beyond repair. The October incident, they insist, is the inevitable consequence of a security policy that treats supporters as a risk to be managed, not a community to be understood.
And for many, it all feels familiar, another ex-police appointment, another escalation, another clash between order and expression.
Into this atmosphere today stepped the Celtic Fans Collective, a broad coalition of supporter groups that includes the Green Brigade, the North Curve and many others. Their statement following the ban was both a show of solidarity and a sharp rebuke.
They accused the club of“collective punishment without a fair or transparent investigation,” contrasting the speed of the club’s action against its inertia over the “London Road kettle”, the mass detention of Celtic fans before last season’s derby. That event, eventually investigated through the Fairhurst Report, resulted in no disciplinary action and no public defence of supporters.
The phrase collective punishment cuts to the heart of the supporters’ anger. By banning an entire section for the alleged actions of one or a few, the club has chosen the bluntest possible instrument. It may simplify stadium management, but it strips away any sense of fairness or proportionality and tells every supporter in that area that their individual conduct no longer matters.
“When fans are mistreated, the club looks away,” the Collective said. “When fans are accused, the club acts overnight.”
They also linked the timing to wider unrest. With the AGM approaching, shareholder activism rising, and discontent over proxy voting procedures raised via The Celtic Trust swirling, many believe the board sought to neutralise the loudest voices of protest. Whether or not that was the motive, the effect is the same, the group most visible in expressing dissent has been removed from the stage.
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From the club’s side, the rationale may be less political than practical. Celtic is not just a football club but a publicly listed company operating under strict safety licensing and insurance frameworks. The Rail Seating Section exists only because the club can demonstrate control and compliance.
Sack The Board protest at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Any suggestion of disorder, particularly involving police officers, threatens that status. Failure to act decisively could invite scrutiny from the authorities, compromise insurance cover, or even endanger the safe-standing licence itself.
In that light, the board’s swiftness looks like self-preservation. Yet what the board sees as diligence, many supporters interpret as authoritarianism. The process feels opaque, the punishment collective, and the tone corporate, all the things many Celtic supporters have grown to resent.
The truth is this latest clash doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s part of a larger collapse of trust between the boardroom and the stands.
For years, Celtic’s leadership has spoken of “engagement” while rarely practising it. Fans are asked to renew and behave, but seldom consulted. Decisions, on policing, ticketing, or protest, seem made behind closed doors and announced as fait accompli. When challenged, the club’s instinct is defensive, its communication formal and cold.
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 Dermot Desmond on the 18th tee during the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 on the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf CLub, Fife, . 06/10/2024. Picture Fran Caffrey / Golffile.ie
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That style might suit a PLC, but it sits uneasily with Celtic’s self-image as a club of people and principles. Supporters remember that Celtic was built by community action, not corporate governance. And when that heritage is replaced by statements written in the language of liability and risk management, it stings.
Even fans who have little time for the Green Brigade’s more confrontational antics recognise the imbalance. ‘I don’t believe a word the club says anymore,’ has become a common refrain, not out of blind loyalty to one group, but out of accumulated fatigue with how the club handles its own.
Every time this cycle repeats, the same pattern emerges. Allegations are issued in official language, headlines follow, supporters argue among themselves. The narrative is set before any evidence is seen, and by the time counterclaims surface, the damage is done.
Peter Lawwell, Chairman of Celtic, Dermot Desmond, Non-Executive Director of Celtic, and Michael Nicholson, CEO of Celtic, are seen in attendance prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
This ‘divide and conquer’ dynamic has long been the board’s unspoken advantage, whether intentional or not. Keep supporters divided, and the pressure dissipates. Yet in this case, the emergence of the Celtic Fans Collective suggests unity. The board may have expected to isolate the Green Brigade, instead, it may have galvanised the wider fanbase.
The club insists investigations are ongoing and further disciplinary action may follow. The Green Brigade and the Collective have called for dialogue, for the release of evidence, and for an independent process that treats supporters as participants rather than problems. So far, there’s no sign of movement.
Meanwhile, the “Not Another Penny” campaign gathers momentum, proxy vote disputes rumble on, and trust continues to drain from a relationship already running on fumes.
There are two realities that can both be true. If a steward was assaulted, that is unacceptable and deserves sanction. Equally, if stewards or police used unnecessary force, that too demands accountability. A club that claims to stand for fairness cannot selectively apply it.
But the larger truth is simpler, Celtic’s bond with its own support is fractured. The October incident may have been the latest spark, but the kindling has been years of miscommunication, defensiveness, and disregard.
Celtic say they act in the name of safety. The Green Brigade and the Collective say they act in the name of principle. Perhaps both are right, but until the club can rediscover the humility to listen, there will be no bridge between them.
For a club founded on unity and purpose, this is a bleak moment. A stadium built on song and solidarity has seemingly become a place of suspicion and surveillance. The people who bring colour and noise feel unwanted, and those in charge seem unmoved.
And yet, amid the anger, there remains a chance — slim but real — to turn this from confrontation to conversation. Dialogue is clearly still possible. The question is whether anyone at Celtic Park wants to communicate.
Niall J
Next up we’ll look at this latest development from the perspective of the Green Brigade themselves having extensively covered the club’s position, the Celtic Fans Collective’s view and various commentaries from writers on The Celtic Star…
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Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star
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