Confirmed: Former Celtic CEO Dom McKay lands first job since surprising Parkhead exit

By David Walton

October 21, 2021

Former Celtic CEO Dom McKay is back in rugby once more after landing a new role with European Professional Club Rugby [EPCR].

McKay shocked everyone when he departed the Hoops back in early September. The club stated at the time that this was down to “personal reasons” [Celtic FC]. This hasn’t been elaborated on since.

But it hasn’t taken long for the former Hoops chief to land a new gig. EPCR have today confirmed McKay is back in his former sport as interim chairman of the organisation.

EPCR form the governing body of the two major European rugby union club tournaments. It comes after Celtic previously nabbed him from his role as COO of Scottish Rugby.

When McKay arrived at Parkhead, he was key in the appointment of a new manager in Ange Postecoglou. He also touched on his grand plans of modernising the football club and making everything about it “World Class”. It’s fair to say that vision barely began.

Celtic have yet to hear from McKay’s replacement Michael Nicholson, with a real lack of clarity in how we’re moving forward as a football club.

Celtic fans will wish Dom McKay well, but strong feelings of regret persist

McKay was clearly a big Celtic fan and his enthusiasm was there to see. There was plenty of skepticism about how he would bring some of his promises to fruition. But even so, he created an image of a future that Celtic supporters could get behind.

That’s why it was such a blow to see him depart. Supporters simply didn’t know what to make of it. They still don’t to be fair. The club has remained extremely secretive on just what the specific reasons were for his departure.

It hasn’t taken McKay long to find his new role in any case. And it’s in an area he’ll likely feel more comfortable in. A sport in which the pressure he’ll be under won’t have the same media spotlight as his role at Celtic contained.

He came across well in his brief time in the job, but the message from supporters always remained the same. McKay was going to be judged on how he went about modernising the football club and, ultimately, whether success was restored to Parkhead.

It remains to be seen if his help in appointing Ange leads us to that. However, there’s definitely massive regret from fans that we didn’t manage to see more action from him off the pitch. We were all set to get behind this new era/partnership between Ange and McKay. Instead, we’re left wondering how Nicholson views the long-term vision of the club.

All the best to Dom regardless. Hopefully it all works out for him.

In other news, Barrie McKay laughably compared to Celtic legend Lubo Moravcik