Board Member Celtic Plc 
Chairman/Founder Intl Investment & Underwriter
Has been a non-executive Director of the Company since May 1995. He is Chairman and founderof International Investment & Underwriting Limited (“IIU”), a private investment company operating from the International Financial Services in Dublin. IIU and related companies have a substantial number of investments in a variety of businesses world-wide, including London City Airport and the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados. Mr Desmond was previously founder and Chairman of the NCB Group. Mr Desmond is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.
Quotes
“Chairman Brian Quinn and Director Dermot Desmond also came in to say how proud they were and to thank us all individually and collectively. It’s been a habit of Dermot’s over the years to pop in after big matches and the players do appreciate the fact that he is a fan who also has the best interests of Celtic at heart. ”
Neil Lennon, After the final v Porto in Seville May 2003 (from Lennon’sbiography)
” I’m direct and outspoken. I’m telling it exactly as I see it, as I believe it so nobody is under any misapprehension of what my philosophy is. Secondly the Scottish Press, I won’t speak with them, and thirdly I’ve taken on the Scottish Press over some of the things that they’ve written. Fourthly what I don’t really understand is why Celtic people buy some of the papers in Scotland, especially The Record. I don’t even know whether any of the papers are left wing, right wing, blue green or anything else but I get copies of cuttings about Celtic here and The Record is to me, they print lies, and they do everything they can to create trouble and create division between Celtic and Rangers. They like to create trouble within Celtic and they like to create trouble between Celtic and Rangers. I can’t understand why anybody buys them.”
Dermot Desmond
Tackling celtic’s big issues
Interview (Nov 08) (The Herald)
Celtic football club would seem an attractive proposition for any prospective buyer. Almost debt-free, profitable, with a massive support, a romantic history and a solid chance of annual Champions League entry, Celtic would seem at least as appealing for businessmen as, say, Manchester City, the latest in a string of several Barclays Premier League clubs to have been taken over.
“If somebody came along,” Desmond responded, “and said that they were going to do something absolutely amazing, outstanding for Celtic and that they wanted to buy my shareholding and I felt that they could do a much better job than me or that they would be a better shareholder than me, then Iwould certainly release my shares. But there would have to be evidence that they were going to do that because my interest is in the greater good of Celtic.
“They would have to have the resources to do something absolutely amazing for Celtic. I would impose conditions. As far as I am concerned, talk is cheap and people would have to do something in a tangible way. If they were theoretically going to buy my shareholding they would be buying it on the basis that they did bring major added value and they would have to commit to that.”
Despite having the wealth to own Celtic outright, Desmond has stopped short of taking full control of the club and, although his powerful influence on Celtic is indisputable, there is a fine distinction in his being Celtic’s major and not majority shareholder.
“People have suggested to me that I make a bid for the club and take it private,” he said. “I’m not saying that would never happen but I’m not interested in that because I think Celtic Football Club is a family. It’s not about one family, it’s about the greater diaspora of Celtic supporters and therefore I think it’s better to have a broader level of ownership.
“I think about my investment in Celtic as an emotional investment rather than a pure financial investment. I’m not looking to sell my shares. I’m not looking to generate a return on my shares. My other financial investments give a rate of return over a period of time, whether that’s three, four, five, six, seven or 10 years but I don’t measure the rate of return on Celtic; that’s not on the horizon. In terms of financial logic, it is not met.”
No match in Celtic’s history has invoked greater discussion of the financial differences between the participants than this week’s encounter with Manchester United. That the Old Trafford club could afford to spend more than £30m on Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian striker, demonstrates a financial gulf between them and Celtic.
England’s premier clubs have embraced a culture of debt in recent years; two years after the 2005 takeover of United by the Glazer family, the club were £604m in the red while Chelsea, their Champions League final opponents last May, floated there on a tide of loans from Roman Abramovich, their owner, that totalled a staggering £619m in 2007.
The long-term effects of this are unpredictable. With the ongoing rumblings in the financial markets and figures showing most clubs in England’s top flight to be in serious debt, it provokes speculation as to which FA Premier League house of cards might collapse first.
Celtic have plotted a steadier course since the mid-1990s, when Desmond made his initial investment in the club, purchasing £4m worth of shares, the first in a series of investments from the Irishman.
“What we are trying to do is build the club. Nobody has the divine right for success. It’s not a formula in football: it’s an art picking a manager; and then it’s an art finding players; and it’s an art then of putting the right team together. The only concern I have going forward is that we retain people of the calibre of Peter Lawwell and Gordon Strachan and that we continue to improve our structure, personnel and playing staff. We’re brave enough and strong enough that in difficult times we’ll stick together and won’t panic and won’t have any witch hunts. I think part of what makes Celtic strong is that in tough times we are united not divided.”
These tough times have come in the financial world but Celtic seem recession-proof. One aspect that became clear in researching The Official Biography of Celtic was that, without the intervention of Fergus McCann and then Desmond in the mid-1990s, the club would have become a different and less substantial entity. It would have become a club that could only have dreamed of competing in the Champions League.
Interview Feb 2014
Celtic Official
When did you and Fergus first discuss your investment in Celtic?
It was about 1994 when I’d been introduced to the opportunity of investing in Celtic by a friend of mine called Brian Phelan and he then connected me with Fergus McCann. I looked over the plans that he had and he told me they were looking for £4million but I felt they would need to raise £8million. So I said I would invest £4million and underwrite another £4million, so that was really my first financial encounter with Celtic.
How much of a gamble did you feel you were taking at the time in investing a considerable sum of money out of your own pocket?
I never looked upon it purely as a normal investment because, as I’ve said many times before, Celtic is an emotional investment but at the same time you don’t want to be throwing money at emotional investments as you could go broke pretty quickly doing that. So I looked upon it as creating a solid financial platform for Celtic in conjunction with Fergus and the other board members. I felt that if we ran the company on a purely expenses meeting revenue basis then we would have a good base for going forward.
Sometimes in football the heart can rule the head and you obviously had to differentiate between your emotional and business input. Which swayed you one way or the other?
I think the emotional side of it sways you. If it had been another club on the same basis then I wouldn’t have been interested in investing. From when I was a young boy I had a fondness and a love for Celtic so it was easy for me to look at it closely and I started off wanting to invest rather than from a basis of refusing it.
What was the personal motivation that encouraged you to become involved with the club?
It was saving Celtic – Fergus was saving Celtic. I wasn’t really aware of all the intricacies going on between the various families and factions but Fergus went in there, I would say as a neutral, coldly and hard, and wanted to do the best for Celtic and its fans. I saw that and I believed in that and it was easy for me then to look at it on that basis and to support him.
How important is the continued support of the fans in the club’s success?
The football club is about the fans. It’s a merger between all the players, the coaches, the executives and the fans and we’re all unified in our love of Celtic. So I think a football club without fans is not a football club.
Dermot Desmond: I just had to save Celtic
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/462432/Dermot-Desmond-I-just-had-to-save-Celtic
DERMOT DESMOND last night revealed how his heart ruled his head when he joined forces with Fergus McCann to save Celtic.
By: Graham Clark
Published: Fri, February 28, 2014
CELTIC SAVIOUR Dermot Desmond CELTIC SAVIOUR: Dermot Desmond [GETTY]
The Irish tycoon – and Celtic’s majority shareholder – spoke on the eve of the 20th anniversary of McCann’s takeover and acknowledged he was won over by the masterplan that was being put in place way back in 1994 after the then board was ousted.
“It was all about saving Celtic – Fergus was saving Celtic,” recalled Desmond.
“I wasn’t really aware of all the intricacies going on between the various families and factions, but Fergus went in there, I would say, as a neutral, cold and hard, and wanted to do his best for Celtic and its fans.
“I saw that and I believed in that, and it was easy for me then to look at it on that basis and to support him.
“But I never looked upon it purely as a normal investment because, as I’ve said many times before, Celtic is an emotional investment, although at the same time you don’t want to be throwing money at emotional investments as you could go broke pretty quickly doing that.
“So I looked upon it as creating a solid financial platform for Celtic in conjunction with Fergus and the other board members.
“But the emotional side of it sways you. If it had been another club on the same basis, I wouldn’t have been interested in investing.
“But, from when I was a young boy, I had a fondness and a love for Celtic so it was easy for me to look at it closely and I started off wanting to invest rather than from a basis of refusing it.”
It was all about saving Celtic – Fergus was saving Celtic
Dermot Desmond
Desmond, talking to The Celtic View, also revealed how he got together with McCann as Celtic teetered on the brink of going bust.
“It was 1994 when I’d been introduced to the opportunity of investing in Celtic by a friend of mine called Brian Phelan, who connected me with Fergus.
“I looked over the plans he had and he told me they were looking for £4million, but I felt they would need to raise £8m.
“So I said I would invest £4m and underwrite another £4m, so that was really my first financial encounter with Celtic.”
Since then, Desmond has kept a low public profile as far as the Hoops are concerned but remains hugely interested in everything that happens at Parkhead. And no major decisions are taken without his say-so.
He is also close to manager Neil Lennon.
But now, as then, he appreciates exactly what the support means to Celtic, and added: “The football club is about the fans.
“It’s a merger between all the players, the coaches, the executives and the fans – and we are all unified in our love of Celtic.
“I think a football club without fans is not a football club.”
Nov 2016
Neil Lennon: ‘Dermot Desmond’s legacy will forever be enshrined in Celtic’s history’
Manager believes it should be acknowledged that Irish billionaire is first and foremost fan of club
By Andrew Smith
Saturday, 19th September 2020, 11:59 am
Celtic manager Neil Lennon (left) regularly speaks to Celtic’s largest shareholder Dermot Desmond
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/neil-lennon-dermot-desmonds-legacy-will-forever-be-enshrined-celtics-history-2977168
A kingmaker lauding the employee upon whom he has bestowed the most important responsibilities in his footballing fiefdom is hardly to be unexpected. Likewise when said employee extols the virtues of said kingmaker.
Yet the mutual appreciation society that exists between Celtic’s largest shareholder Dermot Desmond and manager Neil Lennon can be considered no mere PR confection. The pair genuinely have plenty to be thankful to each other for.
Celtic: Get the latest team news, match previews and reports
The Irish billionaire served up plenty of juicy nuggets in a rare interview yesterday. Desmond delights in Celtic as an emotional investment that doubles up as an outlet to demonstrate his acumen isn’t reliant on largesse. In Lennon, that finds its expression.
The 70-year-old bought into Celtic a quarter of a century ago and has said this shareholding is the only one within his portfolio with which he would not part. He wants to set up Celtic as an exemplar in the game that proves success can be secured without profitability being sacrificed.
Turning to Lennon again when Brendan Rodgers departed for Leicester City in February 2019 was inevitably derided as the club taking the cheap option. The fact that Celtic have scooped up every domestic honour in the year and a half since allows Desmond vindication over the reappointment of a Lennon who, he said, “you underestimate at your peril”. He spoke of him “being a work in progress” following his first management stint from 2010 to 2014 wherein Desmond said the club “sort-of tutored” him and he made mistakes “none of which were [sic] fatal”.
“We took him back in even though some of the fans thought it was a retrograde step… and he has repaid our belief in him,” Desmond told the Athletic.
Lennon doesn’t pretend he is not in Desmond’s debt. And though the businessman is a divisive figure among supporters who see him as an absentee landlord, primarily concerned with the bottom line and wealthy through benefitting from a neoliberalism they instinctively reject, Lennon believes Celtic have a debt to Desmond too. Primarily because of how much he cares about their football club. A fact that doesn’t always make their regular conversations easy going.
“He’s been so good to me, and for me,” the manager said. “We do talk on a regular basis, so he’s got his finger on the pulse of the club and the team. We talk at length the day before a game or we analyse the game now and again. He made it clear and we didn’t shy away from it, that he didn’t think the performance against Ross County [last weekend] was good.
Read More
Celtic will consider seeking psychological help
“If you are open and honest with Dermot and straight, you get rewarded for that. He’s a very intelligent man and he’s done unbelievable things for the club. If you have him as a support or an ear then it gives you a lot of comfort, particularly in a heavily pressurised job like this.
“[Our open lines of communication] have been forged over a long time. I’ve been at the club 20 years, I was manager here for four years in my first period and now I’m into my third season.
“It’s not as if there’s a comfort there, he keeps you on your toes. He likes high standards and he likes high standards of performance from the players and staff here. He doesn’t make unrealistic demands of you or unrealistic expectations. If you go through a bad period he’s the first one to pick up the phone and talk to you and support you, and likewise, when we have great results he’s there to congratulate you. If there’s something that he’s not happy with then we talk it through and look to improve on it.
“Listen, he’s a massive Celtic fan, first and foremost. He has just transformed the image and reputation of the club alongside the people he has hired in the top positions of the club. What he has done has been magnificent and he loves the club, he loves the players and he loves going to the games whenever he can.
The rare, uncanny Dermot Desmond interview that explains his current Celtic stance, Neil Lennon situation and ‘song desecration’ views
There is a notorious refusal from Dermot Desmond to give interviews.
By Andrew Smith
Thursday, 3rd December 2020, 1:27 pm
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/rare-uncanny-dermot-desmond-interview-explains-his-current-celtic-stance-neil-lennon-situation-and-song-desecration-views-3056534
The Celtic Opus – the monster tome, bound with fine leather and in a silk, clam-like case that cost a mere £1,967 – proved one of the rare occasions he lowered the wall to a journalist in order to fulfil what he considered a duty.
I happened to be the member of the fourth estate despised by the secretive billionaire tasked with profiling the power behind the Celtic throne as the club’s major shareholder some years ago. The Irishman proved charming and candid, even, as he stressed there was no way he would have given me the time of day were I not contributing to a club publication. The tape of the interview I unearthed this week. In doing so I discovered it contained almost freakishly-pertinent insights into the recent goings on surrounding Neil Lennon.
Celtic: Get the latest team news, match previews and reports
Desmond is a man for whom decorum is non-negotiable. He accepts that football is an “emotional”, “irrational” and “passionate” environment. However, he believes these facets is no way excuse the sort of corner boy behaviour witnessed as a group of Celtic fans sought to stage a verbal lynching – with a smattering of real violence thrown in – of Lennon, the board and the club’s faltering squad at Parkhead on Sunday.
‘Utter desecration of that song’
Desmond simply could not have damned such antics more forcefully when we spoke. “The biggest contradiction about Celtic, and Celtic supporters, is from the minority. When those same supporters that sing about ‘being faithful through and through’ then boo those at the club that is a complete and utter desecration of that song,” Desmond said.
“I totally abhor anyone like that. Real support is when you are losing. Everybody gives me support when I don’t need it. I only want support when I need it. When we are winning matches here, when we are winning trophies or winning the league, there will be people that will come up to me at Celtic Park and give me a thumbs up, smile at me, and tell me ‘good man’. We lose a big match and I’m the greatest bollox on the earth. It’s all my fault, all the directors’ fault. But when we win it is down to the manager and team, not the directors. We are beneficiaries of abuse, we are never beneficiaries of praise.”
Desmond believes in Lennon. Whatever the on-pitch implosion of the past two months, that is entirely understandable since until then the Celtic manager had rarely made a wrong step across a silverware-stuffed near two-year second spell. Lennon has spoken of the “values” held by Desmond. That extends to refusing to deviate from what he considers the proper course of action, however humungous the outside pressures.
Won’t bow to pressure
“If a million people told me to do something [in a body of] only a million and one, and I was the one and I didn’t feel that something was right, then I would take my own counsel. And they can shout, and they can exhort all they like, and I will not change my opinion if I think it is the right thing for this club.
“Everything that is done from this club from all the board members and the management, we all do it because it is in the right interests. We might not get it right all the time, but we genuinely act without self-interest. When Celtic are enjoying a period of success some people think that is a just cause, requirement, a need. It makes it more difficult to manage expectations. The difficulty is to produce a good team.
“I have to contribute in a way that brings success. And success is not immediate, or guaranteed or continuous – no club has that right. But what we do is make a club people can be proud of. It is totally irrational to get involved in a football club. But you cannot build a club on irrationality; you must have structures, you must have a vision, and plan it out from A to Z. We want Celtic to be a showpiece for how football clubs should be run, without having thrown money at it. Every football club’s solutions to all their problems is to throw money at them.”
In our conversation it came over loud and clear that the perception of him as some sort of “absentee landlord” nipped him. As did the charge that he runs Celtic as his personal fiefdom following a power grab … the reality being he only increased his shareholding because no-one else stepped forward to underwrite an offer raising funds for the Lennoxtown complex.
Living and breathing football
“The term ‘absentee landlord’ is an emotive, evocative one that goes back to Ireland and the landlord days, it has nothing to do with me,” Desmond continued, speaking back in 2008. “What matters is what you do with your time and how I take on my responsibilities as a shareholder and a director of this club, to contribute to it. It is inexplicable [how immersed you become]. I get up in the morning, half five, six o’clock, and will go on to soccer sites and see what’s happening, see the transfer market rumours. I won’t believe everything I see or read but at least you are filled with information, and some of it is right. I watch a lot of matches. I often watch a French match at half four, or a South American match. I see every Celtic match. I don’t have to wear a hooped jersey, I don’t have to spend 365 days in Celtic Park to be a good, faithful devotee of Celtic.
“It was not my ambition to be the controlling shareholder, it was not my ambition to be the major shareholder here because that carries responsibilities over and above just being a shareholder. And the most likely result of being a major shareholder at a football club is dog’s abuse. It is an absolutely no-win situation.”
Neil Lennon: ‘Dermot Desmond’s legacy will forever be enshrined in Celtic’s history’
Manager believes it should be acknowledged that Irish billionaire is first and foremost fan of club
By Andrew Smith
Saturday, 19th September 2020, 11:59 am
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/neil-lennon-dermot-desmonds-legacy-will-forever-be-enshrined-in-celtics-history-2977168
A kingmaker lauding the employee upon whom he has bestowed the most important responsibilities in his footballing fiefdom is hardly to be unexpected. Likewise when said employee extols the virtues of said kingmaker.
Yet the mutual appreciation society that exists between Celtic’s largest shareholder Dermot Desmond and manager Neil Lennon can be considered no mere PR confection. The pair genuinely have plenty to be thankful to each other for.
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The Irish billionaire served up plenty of juicy nuggets in a rare interview yesterday. Desmond delights in Celtic as an emotional investment that doubles up as an outlet to demonstrate his acumen isn’t reliant on largesse. In Lennon, that finds its expression.
The 70-year-old bought into Celtic a quarter of a century ago and has said this shareholding is the only one within his portfolio with which he would not part. He wants to set up Celtic as an exemplar in the game that proves success can be secured without profitability being sacrificed.
Turning to Lennon again when Brendan Rodgers departed for Leicester City in February 2019 was inevitably derided as the club taking the cheap option. The fact that Celtic have scooped up every domestic honour in the year and a half since allows Desmond vindication over the reappointment of a Lennon who, he said, “you underestimate at your peril”. He spoke of him “being a work in progress” following his first management stint from 2010 to 2014 wherein Desmond said the club “sort-of tutored” him and he made mistakes “none of which were [sic] fatal”.
“We took him back in even though some of the fans thought it was a retrograde step… and he has repaid our belief in him,” Desmond told the Athletic.
Lennon doesn’t pretend he is not in Desmond’s debt. And though the businessman is a divisive figure among supporters who see him as an absentee landlord, primarily concerned with the bottom line and wealthy through benefitting from a neoliberalism they instinctively reject, Lennon believes Celtic have a debt to Desmond too. Primarily because of how much he cares about their football club. A fact that doesn’t always make their regular conversations easy going.
“He’s been so good to me, and for me,” the manager said. “We do talk on a regular basis, so he’s got his finger on the pulse of the club and the team. We talk at length the day before a game or we analyse the game now and again. He made it clear and we didn’t shy away from it, that he didn’t think the performance against Ross County [last weekend] was good.
Read More
Celtic will consider seeking psychological help
“If you are open and honest with Dermot and straight, you get rewarded for that. He’s a very intelligent man and he’s done unbelievable things for the club. If you have him as a support or an ear then it gives you a lot of comfort, particularly in a heavily pressurised job like this.
“[Our open lines of communication] have been forged over a long time. I’ve been at the club 20 years, I was manager here for four years in my first period and now I’m into my third season.
“It’s not as if there’s a comfort there, he keeps you on your toes. He likes high standards and he likes high standards of performance from the players and staff here. He doesn’t make unrealistic demands of you or unrealistic expectations. If you go through a bad period he’s the first one to pick up the phone and talk to you and support you, and likewise, when we have great results he’s there to congratulate you. If there’s something that he’s not happy with then we talk it through and look to improve on it.
“Listen, he’s a massive Celtic fan, first and foremost. He has just transformed the image and reputation of the club alongside the people he has hired in the top positions of the club. What he has done has been magnificent and he loves the club, he loves the players and he loves going to the games whenever he can.
“He was in Rome last year to see us win there and the League Cup final. He’s a huge Celtic fan and just wants what is best for the club. He’s constantly evolving the club in what he sees the club being in five, or ten or 15 years time. If and when he does leave at whatever stage he wants to, his legacy will forever be enshrined in the club’s history.”