Celtic Glasgow condemns fan protest against main shareholder Dermot Desmond

Celtic Glasgow have strongly condemned fans who targeted the club's main shareholder Dermot Desmond at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. On Saturday, tennis balls bearing pictures of Desmond's face were thrown onto the golf course in St. Andrews, Scotland. The portraits were crossed out in red.

Desmond took part in the golf tournament himself. It is a DP World Tour event played in ProAm format. A professional plays with an amateur, usually celebrities from sports or show business, and successful business people are also invited. Desmond played with American Davis Bryant this week. The course in St. Andrews is also called the “Home of Golf”, the Old Course hosts the British Open every five years and is considered the oldest golf course still in existence in the world.

In the statement, Celtic described the protest as a “significant and unacceptable escalation” and announced that it would ban fans involved indefinitely. The club will also stop communicating with the fan group Celtic Fans Collective. She accuses Desmond of exerting too much influence and acting in a non-transparent manner. The 76-year-old financial investor's assets are estimated at $2.2 billion.

“The club will not allow itself to be intimidated or put under pressure by organized disruptive actions,” the 56-time Scottish champion continued: “Nor will decisions about the management of Celtic Football Club be dictated by those who are prepared to continually escalate their behavior in order to put pressure on the club, its employees, directors, shareholders or other people close to Celtic.”

Fans had already protested against the club's management several times. Last year a game against Dundee had to be stopped after tennis balls and oranges were thrown onto the pitch.

The Celtic Fans Collective posted footage of the protest on social media. "Dermot Desmond was allowed to essentially run Celtic Football Club while using his wealth to evade fans and responsibilities. Fans took the opportunity today to send the message that this state of affairs is no longer acceptable," the group wrote on X.

Celtic said the incident had taken the conflict "beyond Celtic Park and football, to the home of golf, and disrupted an internationally renowned sporting event". This brought "shame on the name" of the club: "The reputation of Celtic fans belongs to the entire Celtic family. It does not belong to any self-proclaimed group and no such group has the right to tarnish that reputation for its own agenda."