Green Brigade’s corporate governance challenge to Celtic Board

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The Celtic Star

·25 novembre 2025

Green Brigade’s corporate governance challenge to Celtic Board

If the fallout from Celtic’s AGM was already severe, the intervention from the Green Brigade has now sharpened the focus even further and placed corporate governance at the very centre of the post AGM debate…

In a statement, the Green Brigade has pulled no punches. They wrote.

“At Friday’s AGM, Peter Lawwell, the Celtic Chairman and Chair of the meeting, acted disgracefully towards Celtic shareholders in the room. Lawwell’s behaviour, language and tone reflected a view that he was of a higher class than the shareholders on the floor.

Vidéos OneFootball

Lawwell displayed an inability or unwillingness to manage basic grievances and annoyance from the floor, choosing to adjourn the meeting rather than engage with the shareholders and responsibly manage frustrations to allow the meeting to continue.

Peter Lawwell, former CEO of Celtic, is seen in attendance prior to the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

When a motion was raised from the floor in line with standard practice, Lawwell mocked the shareholder by mimicking the practice of raising the hand to speak. There was no other reason for Lawwell to do this other than to shamefully mock the shareholder in front of the room.

The shareholder in question has been a courageous representative of the Celtic support for over 20 years, regularly facing racism, sectarianism, sexism and misogyny throughout. To be openly mocked by the Chair, while the rest of the board watched on, was shameful.

As well as this, Lawwell repeatedly made disparaging, inaccurate and irrelevant comments towards shareholders. This ranged from questioning their attendance at the meeting to discriminatory remarks.

Ross Desmond at Celtic AGM. 21 November 2025. Screenshot social media

Lawwell proceeded to disrespect the entire room of shareholders, and all Celtic fans, by demanding they “behave” and obediently and respectfully listen in silence while Ross Desmond delivered a tirade of abuse and insults aimed at them.

Throughout the short meeting, Lawwell’s behaviour lacked class, dignity and respect. He was irresponsible, irrational and most likely breached organisational policy. It was further evidence that his position in Celtic FC is untenable.”

As well as this, Lawwell repeatedly made disparaging, inaccurate and irrelevant comments towards shareholders. This ranged from questioning their attendance at the meeting to discriminatory remarks.
– lundi 24 novembre 2025

Throughout the short meeting, Lawwell's behaviour lacked class, dignity and respect. He was irresponsible, irrational and most likely breached organisational policy. It was further evidence that his position in Celtic FC is untenable.
– lundi 24 novembre 2025

The wording is strong, but the core issue they raise is not a stylistic one. It is governance. The AGM did not simply expose tensions between supporters and the board, it revealed cracks in the very structure of how Celtic is run.

Those inside and outside the Celtic tent cannot ignore the basic facts. This was a shambles of an AGM. The CEO and CFO did not speak beyond their pre-recorded contributions. The board allowed no meaningful questions from shareholders. Yet somehow, there was ample space and time for the son of the dominant shareholder, acting as his proxy, to deliver a confrontational speech aimed at Celtic’s own supporters.

The imbalance was clear, and the result was a public relations disaster that now stretches into questions about how this PLC actually operates.

Peter Lawwell, a figure previously regarded as a sharp operator in public, looked tired, out of rhythm and strangely detached. Many supporters left the room saying he appeared to be reading from a pre-arranged script when he abruptly closed the meeting, as though the ending was prepared regardless of how the room reacted.

Given the content of Ross Desmond’s speech, many are now wondering whether worse was still to come, and whether shutting down the AGM early was a defensive manoeuvre rather than a reaction to disruption.

The club’s statement afterwards only deepened the concern. It insisted that Lawwell had “called a poll on the resolutions,” yet some shareholders have already gone public saying they heard no such call. If true, that raises serious procedural questions.

The club also invited shareholders to contact Investor Relations with any questions. After a speech that openly attacked the fanbase, after bans on the Green Brigade, and after shareholders themselves were dismissed as unruly at the AGM, perhaps they should take the club up on that offer.

Celtic Football Club Statement – Read HERE.

They may wish to ask why a non-executive director’s proxy had the floor while shareholders were denied a Q&A. They may wish to request the full text of a speech that did not appear to reach its conclusion.

The dominant shareholder and his proxy now appear to be driving strategy from outside the PLC framework. Shareholders have noticed. If self-respecting members of the board have concerns about this, they should be asking the same questions supporters are asking. Are we comfortable with this? Do we approve of these tactics? Or are we simply powerless as the governance culture shifts around us?

If they feel powerless, well, welcome to the wider support. Supporters have been warning about the slow drift of Celtic’s governance into an unchallengeable centre of gravity around a single individual. The AGM made that shift undeniable.

That is why some shareholders may now be considering whether the time has come to do more than complain. It requires only 5% of issued share capital to call an EGM. There are more than enough dissatisfied shareholders to reach that threshold if they chose to. The question is not whether they can, but whether they will, because, at this point, shareholder action is no longer unthinkable, it may be the only mechanism left that forces the club to answer questions it has spent months avoiding.

What is striking is that all this arrives after three consecutive internal conflicts, the attack on the manager, the banning of the Green Brigade, and now the public belittling of shareholders at the AGM. Three different groups, three different issues, yet each met with the same approach, dismiss, deflect, divide. That is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. Once a club finds itself at odds with its own investors, something fundamental has broken.

This is why governance matters. When a board allows itself to be overshadowed by one voice, when executives barely speak, when procedural tools are used to cut off scrutiny, when shareholder rights are handled as irritations, when proxy speeches take precedence over genuine engagement, a club stops functioning like a modern football institution and starts functioning like a fiefdom.

Celtic AGM 2025. Photo The Celtic Trust

The Green Brigade’s statement is only one part of the fallout, but it has forced the core issue into the open. Supporters are asking who is steering the ship, and whether the mechanisms of accountability have been quietly dismantled behind the scenes. And that question is not going away. It cannot be adjourned. It cannot be shut down early. It cannot be managed through a PR statement on a Friday night.

It might sound dry to some, but corporate governance is the heart of how any PLC is run — and Celtic’s is now under real strain.

Supporters often feel powerless, yet shareholders are not, at least not all of them. They have the legal tools to demand answers and force change. The question is whether they will use that power, or whether fear, comfort or self-interest will keep them silent. Celtic’s future direction may depend on which choice they make.

Niall J

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