Stiliyan Petrov doesn’t mince his words about the Celtic board after Champions League exit

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It’s time for Celtic to look forward now as everyone tries to evaluate what has gone wrong.

Celtic’s failure to reach the Champions League for the 2025/26 season will have a financial bearing, as well as leave an already frustrated fanbase even more annoyed.

One thing is for sure, Celtic deserved to get beaten by Kairat Almaty on Tuesday night, and it’s a familiar story and feeling for those in the green and white colours.

As you can understand, the people in power, the Celtic board, are getting verbal pelters from the fans, and Stiliyan Petrov wasn’t shy to throw his own punches.

• READ MORE: Callum McGregor tells Celtic players about ‘external noise’ after Champions League farce in Almaty

Stiliyan Petrov doesn’t mince his words about the Celtic board after Champions League exit

One thing is for sure, the manager, Brendan Rodgers and the players should be beating a team of Kairat’s standing with or without new signings.

But Petrov made it clear on Amazon Prime Sport (26/08/25) that Celtic and the board ‘should take the blame because nothing is given.’

The legendary midfielder explained how, ‘you constantly have to add on’ to the squad that you have and ‘you need more than just previous success.’

“Overall, Kairat Almaty deserved to go through,” stated Petrov. “There are a lot of questions out there. There will be a lot more pressure now regarding transfers from the fans.

“I think the Celtic board and Celtic should take the blame for that because nothing is given. You have to go. You have to win. You have to perform. You have to make sure you go through the next stage. To do that, sometimes, you need more than just previous success.

“Of course, (there is going to be a lot of frustration at the Celtic board). Rightly so. I think the way football is evolving, you constantly have to add on. You have to add quality. You have to add players who can take the club to the next level. Have Celtic managed to do that? No.”

Celtic board told to ‘put it right’

With Rangers also crashing out of the Champions League, the upcoming Glasgow derby is going to be rather interesting for more reasons than not.

The other positive is that Celtic have made a perfect start to life on the domestic scene, and Petrov urged those in charge to ‘regroup’, ‘find the mistakes’, and then ‘put it right.’

“But now I said, there is a reason to look into it and make a decision as to what we did wrong,” added Petrov.

“Did the Celtic board really ask themselves that? It seems like there is always a lack of, ‘yes, we are going there. We want to push. We want to develop. We want to go to the next stage.’

“Have they managed to do that? No. But this is a great chance to regroup and just find the mistakes and put it right.”