Haughey plans new fans' trust to 'bring harmony' back to Celtic

Former Celtic non-executive director Lord Willie Haughey plans to set up a new fans' trust, and has promised to pay for £2m worth of shares for every 10,000 fans that sign up.

The Glasgow businessman has long been a diehard Celtic fan and plans to launch the "Season Ticket Alliance" to help mend the relationship between supporters and the club's board.

"Over the last few months I've been looking at what's going on," he told Go Radio in an interview. "If you've not got harmony in a business, you've got no chance.

"Some of the stuff has been a distraction over the past few months. After last week and the fantastic atmosphere at the stadium to be killed in two minutes, we need to come up with a better solution for how the fans can get a voice."

Fan protests have become the norm at Celtic Park this season, with supporters disgruntled at a perceived lack of spending in recent transfer windows, plus the failed appointment of Wilfried Nancy as manager.

"I'm going to look at setting something up. I believe that the 54,000 season tickets holders are the core, they're the heartbeat of Celtic.

"I'm going to set up a thing called the 'Season Ticket Alliance'. I'm going to pay for it, I'm not looking for money from anybody.

"What I'm offering is, for every 10,000 fans that join us, I'll put £2m in to buy shares for this trust.

"If we take all the shares of the people who join through the trust, if everyone joins, that's £10m. They will be gifted to the trust. It won't be owned by me.

"I think we have to get something that all the fans can get behind. Let's get harmony, let's get the Green Brigade back in the stadium. Let's get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet."

Lord Haughey also revealed that he plans to get an ex-player involved, and aims to have a fan on the board if his plan is successful.

"I'm going to get a Celtic legend to front it, I've got that done," he said. "Hopefully in the next few weeks there'll be more details.

"The long-term play is to get enough people behind us that we can go to the club and this should be the vehicle as to how the fans can get their viewpoint over to the club.

"Maybe even potentially in years to come, we can get someone from the fanbase onto the board."