The Green Brigade, Celtic’s most prominent ultras group, has announced a boycott of the club’s European and cup matches in protest at the direction of the club under principal shareholder Dermot Desmond and the board. The group is leaving the Home Cup Ticket Scheme and will not attend any home Europa League fixtures or any Scottish Cup tie, whether at home, away or at Hampden. League matches are not affected.
The move follows a sharp escalation in tensions between Desmond and organised supporters. During the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews the previous weekend, the Irish billionaire was targeted with a tennis-ball protest by fans wearing balaclavas. Celtic responded with a strongly worded statement that blamed the Celtic Fans Collective, an umbrella body for supporter groups that includes the Green Brigade, and said a line had been crossed.
In its own statement, the Green Brigade accused Desmond and the board of showing “utter disdain” for supporters. It denied responsibility for the action the club attributed to it, while saying it commended those who carried it out. The group listed a series of grievances, including a widening gap between those who run the club and its fans, an atmosphere it called unsustainable and linked to Desmond’s influence, police collusion, vendettas against its representatives, limits on the standing section, unworkable rules on tifo displays, repeated threats of unilateral bans and a refusal to engage with it in a meaningful way. Taken together, it said, these problems stop it from operating as an ultras group.
The group said meaningful change demands sacrifice, which is why it has chosen to withdraw. It noted that other supporters had already made similar decisions but stressed that its own choice was not intended to pressure anyone else, and said it remains committed to the Celtic Fans Collective.
The Green Brigade will review the boycott at the end of the season, or earlier if it sees enough progress. The dispute leaves Desmond, the club’s principal shareholder, facing an organised and public protest from one of its best-known supporter groups, only days after the club’s furious response to the St Andrews incident. How the board responds, and whether it opens meaningful talks with fan groups, will shape relations between the club’s ownership and its most vocal supporters for the rest of the season.
