CELTIC BOARD UNDER SIEGE AS FANS REBEL AGAINST £2M MOVE THEY CALL A BETRAYAL OF CLUB VALUES
Some clubs are built on success. Others are built on conscience. Celtic was born from suffering, sustained by solidarity, and defended by supporters who believe the badge carries a moral weight that cannot be traded away. This is not a club that was meant to drift quietly into compromise. Its history is loud, its values unflinching, and its supporters have never been known for silence when something feels wrong.
There are moments when patience snaps. When loyalty turns sharp. When fans stop asking questions and start issuing demands. Celtic has reached one of those moments now, and the atmosphere around the club has turned volatile. This is no longer discomfort. This is confrontation.
The Celtic board is under ferocious pressure to immediately abandon a proposed £2 million move for Jocelin Ta Bi, with anger spilling across supporter groups, social media, and activist organisations. What was expected to be routine transfer business has detonated into one of the most explosive internal crises the club has faced in years.
At the centre of the storm is the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which has publicly demanded that Celtic walk away from the deal, warning that completing it would amount to a betrayal of everything the club claims to stand for.
The objections focus squarely on Maccabi Netanya’s ownership by Aliya Capital Partners, a firm linked to drone manufacturer XTEND. PACBI claims the company has invested around $30 million into XTEND, which it says has supplied thousands of drones to the Israeli military since the start of the Gaza conflict, including armed models.
The group also highlighted Ross Kestin, who sits as both chairman of Maccabi Netanya and a board member of XTEND, accusing the structure of directly profiting from ongoing military operations.
“This is not neutral business. This is complicity,” PACBI said, accusing Celtic of standing on the brink of moral collapse if the deal proceeds.
What has truly ignited fury, however, is the sense that the club’s leadership is moving in open defiance of its own supporters. Celtic fans—particularly the Green Brigade—have become globally recognised for their unwavering solidarity with Palestine, a stance that has led to repeated UEFA punishments but has cemented the club’s reputation as a symbol of resistance and conscience.
PACBI praised the supporters while accusing the board of “systematically ignoring” the values fans have defended for years.
That anger was amplified by Mohammed Alazraq, a board member of Lajee Celtic, the football club based in the Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem and backed by Celtic supporters. His words were calm—but devastating.
“Celtic means dignity here. It means people have not forgotten us,” Alazraq said. “But when leadership turns away from those values, the pain is real.”
He described how drones linked to the companies involved are allegedly used to surveil neighbourhoods, intimidate young people, and damage facilities across the West Bank, including sports infrastructure. He revealed that a youth football pitch near Aida Camp is now under demolition threat.
“These are children who only want to play,” he said. “And now even that is being taken.”
PACBI reminded Celtic of its origins—founded to help the poor, the displaced, and the hungry—and warned that associating with entities accused of using starvation and surveillance as weapons is a moral contradiction that cannot be explained away.
“Supporters’ money should never be used to sanitise suffering,” the group said. “Football must not become a shield for oppression.”
Inside the Celtic support, the temperature has reached boiling point. This is no longer a debate about footballing merit, scouting, or finances. It is about identity. About whether Celtic is still the club fans believe it to be—or whether the board has decided values are negotiable.
The message ringing out from large sections of the support is raw and unmistakable: cancel the deal, or face the consequences of a fanbase that refuses to be ignored.
This is not a warning whispered.
It is a demand shouted.
And Celtic’s response will define the club far beyond this transfer window.
