Celtic’s new Adidas anniversary kit was designed to stir emotion among supporters, and that part worked immediately. The Lisbon Lions tribute tapped into one of the proudest moments in the club’s history, but the reaction from sections of the support quickly showed nostalgia alone is no longer enough to change the mood around the Celtic hierarchy.
The new Adidas home kit generated excitement because of its strong connection to the club’s European Cup-winning side. The gold detailing and commemorative elements linked to the 60th anniversary tribute gave supporters a reminder of one of Celtic’s defining achievements.
That emotional reaction did not last long before attention shifted elsewhere. A blunt statement from the Celtic Fans Collective quickly pulled the conversation back towards growing frustration with the people running the club.
For many supporters, criticism of the current structure ultimately leads back to Dermot Desmond as the dominant figure overseeing the club’s direction. That is why the timing and wording of the Collective statement carried significance beyond a normal social media reaction.
The new kit did not shift supporter frustration
The phrase “Not Another Penny remains” immediately became one of the major talking points around the launch. Instead of discussion staying focused entirely on the shirt itself, attention quickly returned to wider dissatisfaction with the board at Celtic.
This should have been one of the easiest commercial wins the club could deliver. An anniversary tribute tied to the Lisbon Lions was always going to resonate emotionally with supporters across generations.
What followed showed that many fans now separate emotional attachment to the club from their feelings towards the people running it. Supporters can celebrate Celtic’s history while still demanding accountability and change.
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The reaction also reinforced how visible the current unrest has become around the club. A major Adidas launch became secondary to another public warning aimed towards the leadership structure at Celtic that supporters believe has gone too long without meaningful change.
The Celtic Fans Collective campaign is clearly not fading away
The Celtic Fans Collective is made up of multiple supporter groups and fan media outlets, including 67 Hail Hail, united around calls for supporter accountability and structural reform. Their immediate response to the kit launch showed the campaign remains organised and determined.
That is important because moments like this would traditionally soften tensions around the club. Instead, the Collective used one of Celtic’s biggest commercial launches of the year to reinforce that their wider concerns have not disappeared.
No Celtic supporter is rejecting the significance of the Lisbon Lions or the emotional connection attached to the anniversary shirt. The issue for many fans is that celebrating the club’s history no longer distracts from ongoing concerns about ambition, leadership and accountability.
Celtic’s support will always respond emotionally to moments connected to the club’s identity. What this reaction showed is that many fans now expect the standards in the boardroom to match the standards associated with the club’s illustrious history
