O'Neill dreaming of Celtic 'utopia' as fan unrest rumbles on

Relations between fans and the board have been strained for more than 12 months as a result of frustration over the club's transfer strategy.

Sat, 21 Feb, 2026 - 15:12

Gavin McCafferty and Anthony Brown

Martin O'Neill is longing for some unity at Celtic Park after a fractured atmosphere in their Europa League defeat by Stuttgart.

The first leg of the knockout round play-off was disrupted by the co-ordinated throwing of dozens of mini balls on to the pitch as fans continued their campaign for boardroom change and the reinstatement of the Green Brigade ultras, who are subject to an indefinite ban.

Relations between fans and the board have been strained for more than 12 months as a result of frustration over the club's transfer strategy.

But Thursday's 4-1 defeat saw a section of fans audibly turn on goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel after he let in two soft goals.

O'Neill is desperate for supporters to back his players during Sunday's visit of Hibernian as the William Hill Premiership champions chase Hearts and Rangers.

"Well, that would be utopia for us," he said. "To get us all together and feeling that this football club can only push in one direction if everybody's going that way."

Interim chairman Brian Wilson described Thursday's protest as "deeply disappointing".

Wilson said in a statement: "Over the past two weeks, I have met with a range of supporters groups and individual supporters.

"I have met in good faith with representatives of the Green Brigade and was hopeful that progress could have been made. Indeed this remains the case. I also met in good faith with representatives of the Celtic Fans Collective.

"When I came into this role, I asked for unity inside the stadium to support the team while trying to resolve other issues. I want to see suspensions lifted and differences set aside, but this cannot be unconditional.

"(Thursday) night's disruption and the reasoning behind it illustrate the difficulty we face and have repeatedly had to contend with.

"This is not intended to deflect from other issues that affect the club and are fully recognised. However, the possibility of further disruptions needs to be addressed urgently.

"Surely the priority must be to give Martin and our players every opportunity to achieve their objectives within the remainder of the season?

"On that basis, I will continue to seek an end to this debilitating and unnecessary atmosphere of conflict."

Earlier on Friday, the North Curve Celtic X account, which publishes Green Brigade statements, wrote: "Despite recent platitudes of 'unity' from the club, last night marked the 24th match that 250 Celtic fans have been banned for - following no fair process nor logic and with seemingly no end in sight."

Despite the off-field issues, Celtic have scored crucial late goals in their last three domestic games.

Hibs defender Warren O'Hora, whose side have conceded costly late goals against Dunfermline and Hearts since the turn of the year, is mindful of the need to remain switched on.

"Football's more than 90 minutes," said the Irishman. "Celtic seem to score a lot of late goals and that's credit to them. They keep going to the end but it's important that we keep going to the end, and - you never know - we might get a late goal to win it this time.

"As a centre-half, I don't like conceding goals at any time. To concede goals late on is never good, especially if you're losing games from it. It's definitely something we've addressed but I'm not going to go too much into that.

"It's something that, especially at Celtic Park, you need to be switched on for all the time because it's relentless. But it's a great opportunity for us to put a marker down."