Celtic and the History of Boycotts

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·6 février 2026

Celtic and the History of Boycotts

Given Celtic’s Irish heritage, it is perhaps no surprise that anti-Board protests would eventually result in calls for a boycott. This is the case for tomorrow’s Scottish Cup match against Dundee at Celtic Park…

A fox runs across Celtic Park on 1st March 1994. Celtic beat Kilmarnock 1-0. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The origin of the word ‘Boycott’ can be traced back to the Irish Land Wars of the 1800s, which influenced Irish emigration and Celtic’s establishment. The word is named after Charles Boycott who was a land agent in Ireland. If he evicted any farmer, local people would refuse to engage with him or work on his land. This gave rise to the term ‘Boycott’, and it soon became used elsewhere too.

Vidéos OneFootball

Using boycotts in football is a long-established practice. Particularly in Scottish football’s earlier days this often happened in relation to the cost of attending games. However, there was one strange example of this in 1936.

In October of that year, Germany came to Glasgow to face Scotland, playing at Ibrox. Infamously, the Swastika overflew the ground as it was then the official German flag. Some Scotland fans threatened to not attend due to this although still 50,000 turned up.

The only boycott involved the Scottish FA. Just before the match there was a civic reception in Glasgow City Chambers for the city’s Charity Cup. Some SFA representatives refused to attend as there was not a similar event to welcome the Nazi Germany team!

Over the years there have been numerous times that Celtic fans have also engaged in these protests – or at least threatened this. Perhaps the earliest example goes back to the 1890s. The club and supporters became embroiled in arguments about the prices and allocation of tickets, which led to warnings that some fan groups would refuse to attend.

In the time since then, there have been other occasions when Celtic and boycotts have connected. Sometimes this is due to fans being unhappy with those running the club whilst others have been about arguments with different sides.

For instance, in 1949, Celtic made the shock announcement of asking for the postponement of future matches with Rangers. The Bhoys believed that violence on the terraces and unfair treatment from referees meant this needed to happen.

Celtic’s request was rejected and the next game – played in September at Ibrox – went ahead as normal. In advance of this, official Celtic fan groups announced they would not be attending and there were vast open spaces in the Celtic end.

Similar arguments arose in the 1950s. Some Celtic supporters’ clubs said they would no longer go to places such as Falkirk owing to the way tickets were distributed. In recent years, some Celtic fans have called for similar action over increasingly smaller away allocations.

Michael Kelly at Celtic Park September 1994

Ultimately, the most notable boycott involving Celtic – and the one most relevant to tomorrow’s action – goes back to 1994 when Celtic were in the midst of a takeover battle. This would eventually see Fergus McCann take control of the club.

On that occasion, numerous fans refused to attend games over a prolonged period, acting in an unofficial capacity. Many still turned up at the ground to show their displeasure.

An official fans’ boycott took place when Celtic when Celtic played Kilmarnock in March. The match – which had been postponed from its original date – had an official crowd of 10,882. But Celts for Change said there was only 8225, which helped bring down the old Board.

Fergus McCann, Celtic Chief Executive 28 March 1994: Photo Mary Evans Allstar, Graham Whitby Boot.

The 1994 action had a much greater impact on Celtic than will be the case tomorrow. In the early-1990s, there were far fewer season ticket holders, and more people paid at the gate. Therefore, not attending had a significant impact on Celtic’s income.

This is not the case nowadays. Most people have paid in advance for games owing to the high number of season tickets. Furthermore, the Home Cup Ticket Scheme ensures that games like tomorrow’s will already be largely sold out, regardless of the numbers that will actually turn up.

Regardless of your opinion on today’s boycott, it is abundantly clear that Celtic cannot continue on down the same road. There is now such a fracturing of the relationship between fans and Board that some sort of major change is needed to fix this.

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)

New Chairman Brian Wilson gave a Thursday night interview which appeared more conciliatory, hopefully showing an understanding of this need. If not, things are going to get much worse.

In that case – and reflecting the way that Charles Boycott’s name has gone down in infamy – what might Desmond, Nicholson, Lawwell or Wilson come to mean in future years?

Matthew Marr