Jeanette Findlay on Dermot Desmond’s excessive influence over Celtic

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·10 settembre 2025

Jeanette Findlay on Dermot Desmond’s excessive influence over Celtic

Vice-chair of The Celtic Trust Jeanette Findlay has raised concerns about the amount of influence Dermot Desmond wields within the club…

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

Although the Irish billionaire holds only a minority 34% stake in the club, Findlay says The Celtic Trust believes he exercises excessive influence over Celtic for someone in a non-executive position.

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Many Celtic supporters believe Desmond exerts 100% influence over daily operations at Celtic, despite owning only a minority share of the club. Jeanette Findlay also criticised non-executive directors for failing to question the board, arguing that they are not fulfilling their intended role and have been at the club for far too long.

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)

Speaking on PLZ Soccer, she said: “Well in our view (The Celtic Trust), he has far too much to say for himself for somebody who’s just a shareholder. The suspicion is that has day-to-day intervention in the club, either directly or through his proxies, is far too much and wouldn’t be happening.

“It’s not good corporate governance. The trust has been saying this for a long time. Moreover, we have a whole set of non-executive directors who have been there far too long, who present no effective challenge and really don’t do the job they’re meant too do, which is to hold the board to account. They simply don’t do that.”

Meanwhile, North Curve Celtic revealed on Monday night that the Open Letter addressed to the Celtic board – which The Celtic Star signed – has gathered 420 signatures so far.

NCC outlined that they have since reached out by email to every signatory for whom they hold contact information. If you have contacted them but haven’t received an email, you can do so at: northcurveceltic@gmail.com.

Change is coming and the Celtic support are united as it has been in years. There is a unity for change and hopefully over the next few weeks the movement accelerates and turns into a force. We are all striving for the same thing, to make Celtic better.

We will be represented at the fan meeting later this evening, and will update members on the outcome by the end of this week in a member’s mailing. We’ll also provide a full AGM report at this time.
– mercoledì 10 settembre 2025

Conor Spence

Celtic in the Eighties – Out Now!…

Celtic in the Eighties by the late, great David Potter is out now on Celtic Star Books. Celtic in the Eighties is now available in the Celtic superstore and all other club shops. And don’t forget that you can still purchase your copy directly from Celticstarbooks.com for same day postage.