Celtic Connect – Board gets fan engagement ducks in a row ahead of AGM

With Celtic’s Annual General Meeting scheduled for 1st December, the club’s announcement of Celtic Connect, its proposed new fan engagement model, arrives at a particularly significant time.

Designed to improve communication between the Board and supporters, the initiative represents an attempt to establish a more structured relationship with a fanbase that has increasingly demanded greater accountability, transparency and meaningful involvement in the club’s direction.

The new initiative was originally proposed earlier this year, with Celtic subsequently undertaking a consultation exercise to gather supporters’ views on its structure and operation. On 9th November, the club confirmed that applications were open, alongside several changes to the original proposals following feedback.

Celtic Connect is intended to provide a formal platform through which supporters can engage directly with the club’s senior leadership. The proposed group will now comprise 11 supporter representatives, alongside Board members and the Head of Supporter Engagement, John Paul Taylor.

The club has increased the proposed membership from nine to 11, with representatives drawn from across the stadium rather than allocated to particular stands. Importantly, a place has also been created for a supporter who regularly attends matches but does not hold a season ticket. This is clearly a recognition that the Celtic support extends beyond the season-ticket-holding community.

Another significant adjustment concerns the frequency of meetings. The revised proposal provides for four meetings annually, creating a more regular opportunity for discussion between supporters and the club.

Membership will operate on a three-year sliding scale, with approximately one-third of the group changing each year. This is intended to strike a balance between continuity and the introduction of fresh perspectives, ensuring that the forum does not become disconnected from the wider support.

The proposed remit is relatively broad. Discussions will cover Celtic’s strategic vision and objectives, the club’s heritage and history, wider supporter engagement, stadium development, the matchday experience and relevant information sharing between the club and its supporters.

These are important subjects. Issues surrounding Celtic Park, investment, facilities, the atmosphere on matchdays and the club’s long-term ambitions are central to the relationship between Celtic and its supporters.

However, the announcement also raises some important questions.

Perhaps the most significant concerns how representatives will be selected. One of the criticisms of the original proposals was that supporters would not directly elect those representing them, with selection instead involving a panel incorporating club representatives. The Celtic Fans Collective, among others, expressed concerns about this approach and advocated a more democratic system of representation.

Although Celtic has responded to consultation feedback with several changes, the November announcement did not clearly explain whether the selection arrangements themselves had been reconsidered. This remains an important issue if Celtic Connect is genuinely intended to represent the wider support.

There is also the question of transparency. Supporters will understandably want to know whether discussions will lead to tangible action, how concerns will be followed up and whether the wider fanbase will be kept informed of outcomes.

The timing of the announcement is also noteworthy. With the Celtic PLC AGM approaching, supporter engagement is inevitably going to feature prominently in discussions about the relationship between the club’s leadership and its supporters.

Celtic Connect should therefore be viewed as an opportunity rather than an achievement in itself. Establishing a forum is relatively straightforward; demonstrating that it can influence decisions, improve communication and rebuild trust is considerably more challenging.

Ultimately, Celtic supporters are not simply customers. They are the custodians of a club whose identity, history and worldwide reputation have been built through generations of loyalty and commitment.

It is the Celtic support who fund the club, the money that the PLC has in the bank is supporters money. Remember that the Celtic supporters paid for their season tickets during the COVID year giving the club over £40m in revenue that they would otherwise not had.

Celtic Connect has the potential to become a valuable part of the club’s future. But its success will depend on whether the Board is prepared not only to listen to supporters, but also to act upon what they hear.

As the club approaches its AGM, that is perhaps the most important message of all.

We are delighted today to open the application process for our new Fan Engagement model, Celtic Connect.

The Club had recently announced the intention to launch Celtic Connect and following a period of consultation, applications are now open to join the group.

Celtic Football Club is committed to strengthening its relationship with supporters and ensuring that fans have a meaningful voice through this new structure. Celtic Connect will provide a forum for supporters to engage in regular discussions and liaison with the Club’s senior leadership.

In arriving at a proposed structure and remit, we reviewed the approach taken by many clubs elsewhere in Britain, and took advice from other clubs on what works and doesn’t work, in order to learn from their experiences.

Additionally, across the past few weeks during our consultation period we received some interesting and important feedback from supporters.

We sincerely thank all those who provided feedback and following this process and our own review, we have made the following changes to the initial proposals.

* The Celtic Connect team will now be increased from 9 to 11 members.

* Season ticket holding representatives will be selected from right across the stadium and not categorised from particular stands as previously discussed.

* We have added a position for a non-season ticket holding, but match-attending supporter as part of the membership.

* Frequency of meetings has been updated to four times per year.

* We have introduced a three-year sliding scale in terms of membership so that a third of the group will change on an annual basis to ensure fresh voices but also continuity.

Throughout the consultation process, it was also pleasing to receive significant interest from numerous supporters wishing to join the Celtic Connect team. We will be contacting all these supporters directly to ensure they have the opportunity to complete the relevant application process.

As we have previously outlined, Celtic Connect will consider:

* The Club’s strategic vision and objectives

* Any proposals relating to Celtic’s heritage and history

* Further plans for broader supporter engagement

* Matters relating to stadium development, matchday experience and projects associated with Celtic Park

* Relevant information sharing between club and supporters

We thank our supporters for their interest and involvement in this process so far and we look forward to updating our fans further on the progress of Celtic Connect.

We would encourage all supporters to consider applying to be part of the group. The closing date for applications is Monday, 23 November, 2026.