Media have no shame in ‘hiding’ Celtic scandal payout | OneFootball

Let’s talk about a serious topic that’s been largely ignored: the Celtic Boys Club scandal. It’s a story of historical abuse that led to a seven-figure settlement for victims, but, as always, the Scottish media seems to have largely ignored it. This is a classic case of the “insider-outsider” problem. Victims are outsiders. Their experiences are relayed to the public through the insiders (usually the media, sometimes the courts) who ostensibly give them a voice. But when the insiders decide not to pay attention or to sweep something under the rug, the victims remain outsiders (Lee, 2025).

The Celtic Boys Club scandal did not happen in isolation. It is one story with multiple characters and a multitude of angles. Despite the club’s claims that it was a separate entity, the Boys Club was, in all but name, an official part of Celtic Football Club. Over 20 victims have now reached a settlement with the club that is reported to be in the amount of millions of pounds. And yet in all the statements the club has made on this sorry affair, it has never once admitted liability or even wrongdoing of any kind. It has paid out millions in compensation, but it has not acknowledged that it was ever at fault (Lindsay, 2025).

You’d expect the media, at the very least, to have a field day with these revelations, yet what have we heard in the year since the Celtic scandal broke? Silence. The papers are full of other, far less significant, stories—about politics, about changes in the U.S.-European balance of payments, about Donald Trump. Yet in all these forms of media, do we find any reported story about the Celtic scandal? And in the rather few cases where there have been any stories, are they not relegated to Page 17, where brief write-ups about local news are made? This is serious stuff (2025).

What really gets under my skin is how the absence of coverage affects public consciousness and awareness. If people aren’t talking about it, if they’re not hearing about it, then they’re not thinking about it. And if they’re not thinking about it, then they’re not demanding change. And if they’re not demanding change, then we can be pretty sure that not much is going to change. If a tree falls silently in the Scottish forest of institutional child abuse, does it make a sound? And if it doesn’t, who actually cares?

To wrap things up, it’s clear that Celtic FC has managed to reach settlements for many of the abuse claims linked to their Boys Club. But a lot of those claims are still unresolved. What’s more, the Scottish media’s failure to give this scandal the attention it deserves seems like an abdication of responsibility. It doesn’t take too much imagination to see how a media that’s willing to look the other way on this will next be willing to look the other way on another case of child sexual assault. The media is supposed to be a force for good. Let’s hope it does a better job in the future.