‘Sclerotic and not fit for purpose’ – Charlie Methven gives another damning review of the Celtic board’s corporate governance

Charlie Methven is at it again, and once again he’s put into words what the majority of the Celtic support has been screaming about for years.

The former Sunderland CEO was back on The Business of Sport podcast this week, and Celtic was very much on the agenda.

His co-host even called it his “pet topic”.

Well, it’s fast becoming everybody’s pet topic.

Back in August, Methven told us the board had “baked failure” into the club’s business plan, and I wrote at the time that his comments were damning.

This time he’s gone further.

Here’s how he described the way our club is being run:

“This is a massive club and we have discussed many, many times on this show how the way in which it’s currently being run is sclerotic and not fit for purpose.”

Sclerotic.

Not fit for purpose.

I couldn’t have put it better myself, and believe me, I’ve tried.

Celtic is a quoted company, but in reality it’s run like one man’s private fiefdom

Methven explained something many fans outside the shareholder bubble probably don’t fully grasp.

In theory, a club listed on the stock market should be run by an independent board, who then appoint the executives.

In practice?

“There is a 30% shareholder called Dermot Desmond, the Irish billionaire, who sits as a non-executive and then effectively controls the club from that position.”

“Right now, there’s a whole question under stock market rules about whether that’s really proper practice.”

He even brought up the statement the absent meddling golfer put out after Brendan Rodgers walked, asking in what capacity a non-executive director was issuing it.

He’s not the chairman.

He’s not the chief executive.

So why was it coming from him?

We all know the answer to that one.

Because he calls the shots at Celtic, and has done for a very long time.

The board is treating our club like a bank vault, not a football club.

Then Methven got onto the money.

“I suspect they’ve got about 90 million pounds in cash in the bank whilst still having a not fit for purpose main stand at their stadium, Celtic Park, and also not having a squad that’s good enough even to be absolute minnows in European qualifying.”

Now, to be fair to the board – and it’s not often you’ll hear me say that – the official accounts to June 2026 put the cash pile at £66.4 million, not £90 million.

Still a massive amount of money sitting doing nothing.

And the Main Stand still hasn’t been touched.

Methven then did the sums on the share price, which values Celtic at roughly £180 million.

Take off around £80 million in the bank, and you’re left with an implied valuation of £100 million on revenues of £140 million and a profit of £30 million.

“Do you think the current Celtic board is doing a good job of optimising the valuation of one of the largest football clubs in the world when it’s trading at 0.7 times revenues?”

No, Charlie.

No, we don’t.

Those figures are last year’s, by the way.

The latest accounts show revenue down to £111 million and a loss after tax of £4.8 million.

That’s a swing from a £33.9 million profit in twelve months.

And the cash pile shrank by nearly £11 million along the way.

So the sums Methven did were already out of date before he’d finished doing them.

Which brings me to the one thing Methven didn’t mention.

He’s right in everything he says, but he left out the effect the Not Another Penny campaign is having on this regime.

Methven clearly understands how this board operates.

But the drop in those figures didn’t happen by accident.

The board will blame it on the Europa League.

Of course they will.

It’s far easier than admitting that the fans are voting with their wallets.

The support knows better.

Not Another Penny had a serious impact last season, and with the way this season is going – LASK, the League Cup exit, a home defeat to the Ibrox side – it could be a hell of a lot more impactful this time round.

Hit them in the pocket.

It’s the only language they understand.

When a board refuses to listen, the fans will reach for the sledgehammer.

Methven also touched on the tennis ball protest at the Dunhill Links, and the club’s statement condemning the Celtic Fans Collective as a “self-appointed group”.

He made the point that when every reasonable avenue of communication has been shut down, sometimes you need a sledgehammer to crack the nut.

Small shareholders have asked for a proper conversation.

They’ve been told to forget it.

Now we hear the AGM at the end of November may be held online, so nobody has to face the music.

Methven summed that attitude up perfectly:

“There’s a profound hubris and arrogance about it where they basically say, ‘We’re not even going to engage with our shareholders, let alone the fans.'”

His solution?

“It should be taken private. It needs to be taken private. It’s not acting like a proper public company.”

The fans are the irresistible force, and Dermot Desmond is the immovable object.

So why hasn’t it happened?

According to Methven, it all comes down to pride.

“The suspicion of a lot of Celtic fans is that Dermot Desmond just won’t let himself be seen to be beaten.”

He’d make a very healthy profit on his shares if the club were taken private, but it would look like he’d been thrown out of the club.

And he can’t have that.

So we’re stuck in gridlock.

No investment in the stadium, no real investment in the squad, and no end in sight.

As Methven asked, are they going to keep reappointing Martin O’Neill every couple of years until he’s 95?

Pride, in other words, is being put ahead of the football club.

You know it, I know it, and the board know it.

Make no mistake, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

The irresistible force isn’t going anywhere.

Neither, it seems, is the immovable object.

Something has to give…

Not another penny!

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