{"id":302700,"date":"2025-12-07T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302700\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T05:27:14","slug":"cops-probe-intimidation-campaign-against-celtic-directors-and-their-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302700\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops probe \u201cintimidation\u201d campaign against Celtic directors and their families"},"content":{"rendered":"

The probe comes after anti-board posters were put up close to the homes of chairman Peter Lawwell, CEO Michael Nicholson, chief finance officer Chris McKay and head of security Mark Hargreaves.<\/p>\n

20:09, 06 Dec 2025Updated 21:16, 06 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Police are investigating an \u201cintimidation\u201d campaign against Celtic <\/a>directors and their families, the Sunday Mail can reveal.<\/p>\n

It comes after anti-board posters were put up close to the homes of chairman Peter Lawwell, CEO Michael Nicholson, chief finance officer Chris McKay and head of security Mark Hargreaves.<\/p>\n

The club<\/a> has criticised the \u201cdisgusting and cowardly\u201d attacks and claimed the school of one of the staff members\u2019 children has also been targeted.<\/p>\n

(Image: Daily Record)<\/p>\n

A Celtic <\/a>spokesman said: \u201cWe can confirm that a targeted attempt has been made to intimidate Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay, Mark Hargreaves and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of posters similar to those we have seen this season have been posted in the vicinity of the homes of Peter, Michael, Chris and Mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese signs have also been posted at a school attended by one of their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a disgusting and cowardly attempt to intimidate and threaten Club staff and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that Police Scotland is investigating these incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Club is firm in its resolve not to give in to this type of intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic Park<\/p>\n

In November Celtic\u2019s AGM was abandoned after only 25 minutes as a result of heckling from supporters towards board members.<\/p>\n

Shareholders unhappy with the way the club are being managed held up red cards, booed and chanted \u201csack the board\u201d as directors arrived.<\/p>\n

Ross Desmond, the son of Celtic\u2019s principal shareholder, Dermot, read out a statement that criticised supporters for their treatment of the leadership.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOur board, led by Peter Lawwell, and our executive, led by Michael Nicholson, are dedicated Celtic people. The attempts to dehumanise them and vilify them are shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans have also been holding up banners protesting against the board during games.<\/p>\n

Celtic reached the knockout phase of the Champions League<\/a> last season, but supporters have criticised their approach to the summer transfer window.<\/p>\n

Brendan Rodgers resigned as the manager in late October, with Frenchman Wilfried Nancy <\/a>appointed as his replacement last week.<\/p>\n

Last week the club extended their ban on the Green Brigade fan group due to \u201csafety incidents\u201d which they say include threats against the club\u2019s head of security.<\/p>\n

Celtic also indicate that any evasion of the suspension could threaten the continued use of rail seating \/ safe-standing which has been in place at Celtic Park since the summer of 2016.<\/p>\n

An initial six-game ban was imposed on around 200 people in early November following \u201cviolent and threatening behaviour\u201d at a home match against Falkirk on 29 October.<\/p>\n

Celtic have said the block on the group\u2019s season tickets will continue until they are \u201csatisfied that the Green Brigade will engage in the safe operation of the stadium, which is critical for the continued operation of the entire rail seating section.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club also state that two members of the Green Brigade \u201cdirectly threatened\u201d and \u201csought to intimidate\u201d their head of safety and security operations Mark Hargreaves.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said the ban was \u201centirely unrelated to any protests or banners\u201d amid anti-board sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The probe comes after anti-board posters were put up close to the homes of chairman Peter Lawwell, CEO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2817,1669,218,43737,7859,101,6929,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-302700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-champions-league","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-peter-lawwell","12":"tag-police-scotland","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sunday-mail","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}