Celtic’s Stock Exchange notification sparks Chairman and CEO exit rumours | OneFootball

It was a grey Monday in the world of Celtic, still reeling and debating a Tynecastle defeat, that is until the club has set itself on fire again…

Brendan Rodgers talks to the media after the match. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Brendan Rodgers has left Celtic. He’s vanished into the mist with a resignation letter, as yet unpublished, and a knowing smirk. And if you still thought you were dreaming all this. Here’s the official evidence. With another plot twist attached, straight from the heart of the bureaucratic abyss.

27 October 2025.

CELTIC PLC

(“Celtic” or the “Club”)

Brendan Rodgers to leave Celtic

Celtic PLC confirms that first-team manager Brendan Rodgers will leave the Club immediately. He has today tendered his resignation which the Club has accepted. The Club would like to thank Brendan for his contribution to the Club during both of his periods at Celtic and wishes him success in the future.

Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill and former Celtic player Shaun Maloney have agreed to lead the first team on an interim basis. The process of appointing Celtic’s next permanent Football Manager is already underway, and an update will be communicated in due course.

Enquiries: Celtic PLC Chris McKay, Chief Financial Officer

Read it again. Just in case you missed it. That’s right — the Chief Financial Officer is now the voice of Celtic Football Club. Not the CEO, not even the omnipresent Peter Lawwell hologram. The accountant. The man who checks the printer leases and the VAT returns. When the finance guy is making the football announcements, you know the structure’s gone full dystopian.

And there now will be questions asked about where the Chairman and the CEO are at the moment and about their own futures at Celtic PLC.

David Low. Photo social media

David Low, who knows his way around the financial side of the business world, picked up on their names being notably absent from the official notification to the markets of the manager’s resignation. He was asked this question on X: ‘David with your background and experience can you tell me does Dermot have the authority to issue a statement on behalf of Celtic. Should statements not be issued solely by Celtic board?’

David Low’s response:

‘The chair or CEO normally makes these announcements and the fact a supposed NED issued the statement is notable. Also, notable is that neithers’ name was on the Stock exchange announcement.’

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Anyway that aside what a replacement act we get for Rodgers. An underscoring of what decade our custodians operate in. Seventy-three-year-old Martin O’Neill, fresh from retirement and still raging about the modern plague of “throw-in coaches,” parachutes in to steady the ship. His lieutenant? Shaun Maloney, O’Neill’s Seville sub, freshly promoted from youth pathway coordinator to assistant manager overnight.

24th May 2025; Hampden Park, Scottish Cup Football Final, Aberdeen versus Celtic; RossDoohan of Aberdeen chats to Shaun Maloney ActionPlus Vagelis Georgariou

You couldn’t script this. One day he’s fine-tuning PowerPoints about player development, the next he’s drawing up set-pieces for Falkirk at home. From pathways to panic stations. This isn’t football management, it’s time travel with a dash of gallows humour. Nostalgia does crisis management.

That stock-exchange notice should’ve been a formality, a polite line to keep the markets calm. Instead, we got more instability. It’s what happens when a club’s internal organs start eating each other.

Michael Nicholson, Celtic CEO and Chris McKay, Celtic CFO, look on from the stands during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD3 match between Celtic FC and SK Sturm Graz at Celtic Park on October 23, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Does the CFO step forward because the CEO, Michael Nicholson, is rumoured to be halfway out the door, and the Chairman, Peter Lawwell, might not be far behind? There’s even talk of Willie Haughey waiting in the wings because nothing says “fresh start” like another millionaire with a club connection.

And then there’s Dermot Desmond, the man who usually prefers the shadows, now suddenly raging in public. His statement wasn’t reassurance, it read like revenge. Pages of corporate fury, aimed squarely at Rodgers. He accused, contradicted, and moralised, like a billionaire priest doing penance by blaming everyone else.

Dermot Desmond prior to the Celtic vs St Mirren Cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park on May 20, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

If Desmond’s goal was calm, he missed the target by miles. He’s poured petrol on the pitch and lit it with his cigar.

Rodgers didn’t go alone. The backroom staff, one in particular, who has been part of the club for more than a decade, sided with him. Walked. Packed his things and left the lights on for loyal Stevie and Gordon Strachan’s boy. The rest followed their man out the door.

So, the board, in a panic, dragged O’Neill from his fireside chair and Maloney from the youth system and told them to steady the ship. It’s football by defibrillator.

It’s surreal. The club is in freefall, the leadership is in hiding, and the one person fronting it all now, it seems, is the financial controller. If this were any other organisation, the shareholders would be demanding resignations. But at Celtic, crisis has become routine of late, part of the operating model.

So, here’s where we are, Rodgers gone. Desmond raging. The CFO informing the Stock Exchange. Rumours swirling of CEO and chairman exits. And in the dugout, a septuagenarian who thinks throw-in coaches are a moral failing, and his Seville sub, who just closed a youth-pathway corporate education video, on his laptop is to take training.

This isn’t a football club anymore, it’s a corporate hallucination. A place where nostalgia has replaced leadership, and now appears outsourced to accountants.

Niall J

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, signed copies by Danny McGrain available from celticstarbooks.com

Don’t miss the chance to purchase the late, great Celtic historian David Potter’s final book. All remaining copies have been signed by the legendary Celtic captain  Danny McGrain PLUS you’ll also receive a FREE copy of David Potter’s Willie Fernie biography – Putting on the Style, and you’ll only be charged for postage on one book.  Order from Celtic Star Books HERE.

Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star

Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Photo: Celtic Star Books

More Stories / Latest News

Celtic’s Stock Exchange notification sparks Chairman and CEO exit rumours

Oct 28 2025, 12:18

Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic having won 11 trophies from a possible 13

Oct 28 2025, 11:37

Welcome to Celtic does Dystopia – It’s enough to make you greet

Oct 28 2025, 10:51