Trouble off the field as well as on for Glasgow football club Celtic, where financier Mr Dermot Desmond is the biggest shareholder with a 19.8 per cent stake. Celtic yesterday reported a fall in half-year pre-tax profits from £2 million sterling to £700,000, while operating profits were down from £4.8 million to £4.3 million.

With Celtic currently 10 points behind Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and humiliated this week in the Scottish Cup by first division side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, head coach John Barnes and his assistant Eric Black have been fired by the club. Another member of the coaching staff, Terry McDermott, has agreed to leave following talks with the club.

In his statement with the results, chief executive Mr Allan McDonald seems to concede that Celtic's 2000 title aspirations are dead when he says that the club "is in a challenging position to secure European qualification".

Turnover at Celtic fell from £22.1 million to £19.3 million, with the club blaming £1.8 million of this fall for the fact that it had only 14 games in the second half of 1999 compared to 16 games in the second half of 1998. But operating expenses - largely players' salaries - jumped 22 per cent to £17.8 million and almost £10 million was spent in strengthening the first team squad.

Mr Desmond increased his stake in Celtic to 19.8 per cent when he bought some of the shares sold by former chairman Mr Fergus McCann last September.

Since then, however, Celtic shares have plummeted as the team's fortunes on the field took a dive. They have fallen from 280p at the time Mr Desmond bought the McCann shares to just 200p yesterday.