Celtic rule out foreign takeover

John Reid says Celtic will not be sold to a foreign billionaire

Chairman John Reid insists Celtic will not be allowed to fall into the hands of foreign billionaires.

Reid says the Scottish champions have global ambitions but stressed the club would not follow in the footsteps of a host of English Premier League sides.

"No, I wouldn't and Dermot Desmond (Celtic majority shareholder) wouldn't either," Reid told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"But we would like access to a bigger platform, whether in Europe or outside Scotland or whatever."

Celtic's Champions League opponents Manchester United were subject to a controversial takeover by American businessman Malcolm Glazer in May 2005.

And United's neighbours City were bought by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the summer of 2007.

When we have to play the Barcelona's or the Manchester United's of the world we have to punch above our weight Celtic chairman John Reid

Seven other English Premier League clubs are in the hands of foreign owners: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Fulham, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Sunderland and West Ham United.

But despite an enormous gap in earnings between Celtic and the top English sides, Reid says his club will resist any temptation to sell the club to the highest bidder.

"Dermot has been a fantastic support for the club," the former Home Secretary said.

"We're quite happy taking the (television) money that we got and doing what we have.

"The key thing about it is not to have somebody who is just handing money out to you, but to run a good business model.

"And despite all of the problems we've had and the limited resources, at our AGM last week we were able to report again that, on the business side, we had the board and shareholders had made a small profit.

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"We had allocated some towards strengthening our squad, but, there's no doubt about it, we're in a limited market in Scotland for multimedia sales.

"Therefore when we have to play the Barcelona's or the Manchester United's of the world we have to punch above our weight because of out sport's size, because of our sporting ability, because of our management and because of the added value we put into that type of players."