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Fergus returns to the debate

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

On many fronts I’m delighted Fergus McCann feels confident enough to get back involved with Celtic, some 15 years after departing the scene.  It wasn’t always this way.  We reached our first European final in 33 years largely as a result of the groundwork he put in place, but he didn’t feel comfortable making the trip to Seville.

He was first tempted back at the unveiling of the Br. Walfrid statue, using the occasion to put the club’s charitable heritage to the fore.  He has since been back to speak at Celtic Charity, now called Celtic FC Foundation, events.

His intervention today, saying “It is important for people to stand up and show their support by buying season tickets. That is my simple message” echoes a letter he sent to season ticket holders in 1995.  Celtic had endured a difficult season at Hampden, if memory serves, we finished below Hibernian in the league, sentiment was low and as season 94-95 drew to a close I remember thinking the rebuilding project was in jeopardy.

Only 31,025 souls turned up to watch an end of season victory against Rangers with many unsold tickets in the Celtic areas of Hampden.   Fergus was also unpopular among a sizable portion of the support, with prominent Celtic supporters only too happy to undermine his reputation.

The season ticket renewal packs arrived with a letter from Fergus which invoked memories of his trip to Kilmarnock in 1963 to see Celtic ship six goals during Jimmy Johnstone’s debut.  Fergus knew what the years ahead would hold for Celtic but he needed faith from you and me or the project would have been in real jeopardy.

To everyone’s pleasant surprise Celtic fans rallied in great numbers as the new stadium opened.  So much so I was scrambling around trying to get a season ticket as the ‘sold out’ sign went up before I got myself sorted.  It took another couple of years before we recorded one of the most momentous league wins in our history but the strategy was sound.  It was always going to get there while others played casino football.

This week, Fergus wrote, “The league is important going forward. Filling the seats makes a huge difference to the club’s chances of getting the players it wants, paying the salaries and getting into Europe.

“The rebuilt Celtic Park has 60,000 seats for a purpose. It was built on my belief that 60,000 at every home game would give the club a key advantage.  And it has.

“Season ticket cash is essential for Celtic to buy players while TV income is a small fraction of that of the bottom club in the English Premier League.  But not all-important.  Personal attendance at every game – through and through – is a key part of our culture.  It shows how important Celtic is in our lives.

“We both know that you don’t stop being a committed supporter of Celtic because the league doesn’t include Rangers, or because you feel you could pick the few big games you want to attend. For years I went to ‘unimportant games’. In fact, I was at every Celtic game, home and away, in the year before I emigrated to Canada.”

Ticket sales is one of those things which bends more with sentiment than we often consider, but we are at a new beginning this summer, one which many feel hopeful for.  I reckon there is a good chance we’ll see an up-click as the Ronny Deila Days start.

Tune in on Friday.  After the CQN Lions night at the Greenock Celtic Supporters’ Club on Friday, we will have Bertie Auld on the blog this Friday, 13th.  More details later in the week.

And just in case you’ve been living on the moon this past week, watch BBC Alba at 21:00 tonight for the Jock Stein film.

Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.

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  3. Kojo on

    John Kennedy, fur Celtic’s Numbero Two-0?

     

     

    Whadya Say?

     

     

    Maks sense tae Me!

     

     

    Kennedy, knows… who ,amongst awe o’ the Up n Comers in the Kiddie Pool…

     

     

    Which wans are the Best Paddlers.

     

     

    n…

     

     

    In His Noo Capacity, as the Number Two Indian…. oan the Totem Pole…He wid be in the Ideal Position tae mak a Perfect Tipper – Offer as tae which Wans, Abune the TeenAge Talent that we hiv..

     

    ur jist abot ready tae Burst intae Full Bloom… tae his Chief.

     

     

    Right?

     

     

    Kojo

     

    Still, Laughin

     

     

    Gotta Leave, Steve..

     

     

    Seeya.

  4. Margaret McGill on

    I think we all owe our existence to Fergus

     

    It’s obvious what Fergus thinks of our illustrious SFA

     

    In retrospect if Fergus says buy STs then we should buy STs

     

    I will buy one now for the first time in 5 years

     

    Reluctantly but Fergus “says”

  7. skyisalandfill on

    Kojo

     

     

    I am aware and somewhat impressed of and by your continued interest in the young Celts progress.

     

     

    Young JK has been their mentor now for a few years and may be ready to make the step up to first team duties.

     

     

    He would I presume be able to assist Ronny in the finer points of the unwritten rules of Scottish fitba.

     

     

    Also a decent link between the youth and first team., something that Lenny had difficulties with.

     

     

    Glad your still laughing.

     

     

    HH

  11. Prodigal Tim on

    Anywhere, I can see the Jock Stein BBC Alba show from the USA? iPlayer doesn’t work outside UK.

  12. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    thomthethim for Oscar OK

     

    20:49 on

     

    9 June, 2014

     

    hamiltontim is praying for oscar

     

     

    18:55 on 9 June, 2014

     

     

    Edit.

     

     

    Thomthethim

     

     

    On the contrary, it’s because I think it’s worth defending that I made my initial point.

     

     

    You see things differently and that’s fine but in my opinion if Celtic had challenged some of the charges brought by EUFA for banners/songs they would have been thrown out.

     

     

    *****

     

    Where were we?

     

    Celtic, like all clubs, are governed by rules of competition, etc.

     

    Those that make the rules, have the power to enforce them.

     

    Whether Celtic or any club challenge them is immaterial. Until they are changed, which is never going to happen, the clubs are bound by them.

     

    Celtic have fallen foul of various crowd violations and been punished on an escalating scale.

     

    I am unaware if the club itself have any hits against it.

     

    What has happened recently, is that a group within the support decided on a particular action, in the full knowledge that it would rebound on the club.

     

    In their view, it was a risk worth taking. Definitely worth it, as they wouldn’t have to pay the consequences.

     

    When the inevitable happened, Celtic placed sanctions on the offending groupHowever, they reopened channels and agreed to accommodate them IF they would abide by the stadium rules.

     

    It would appear that they reserved the right to be sole arbiters of their behaviour.

     

    This, to my simple mind is anarchy.

     

    My simple question is, knowing your profession, would you, or your headmaster, allow a group of pupils to decide which school rules are to be obeyed and which are not.

     

    ———————————————————————————————————–

     

     

    A hit.

     

    A palpable hit.

  14. Margaret McGill on

    So the GB are just a bunch of silly wee laddies who need to get six o the best fae the teacher preferably having their arses skelped per se by the bonus hunters?

  19. Margaret McGill on

    And on that note…

     

     

     

    English Football Association boss Greg Dyke will experience his first FIFA congress in Sao Paulo tomorrow, choreographed by president Sepp Blatter in the Pyongyang style.

     

    When not picking up their hefty per diems in cash, delegates from 209 national football associations will be urged to rubber stamp Blatter’s claim that his corruption-soaked organization “is now setting the highest standards for governance in world sport”. The corruption disclosures that wrecked FIFA’s credibility exploded in 2010 when Sunday Times Insight and the BBC’s Panorama revealed that the 23 man FIFA executive was home to a bunch of venal bribe-seekers, seemingly confirmed when they awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

     

    Blatter hurriedly hired former New York US attorney Michael Garcia to investigate. Garcia will perhaps, some time, deliver a report into whether crooks at FIFA trousered massive bribes to award the tournament to the Gulf billionaires. But why did Blatter choose Garcia as his well-rewarded “independent” investigator?

     

    Asked about Garcia’s record as a Wall Street crime buster and his closeness to the Bush White House, Columbia University law professor Scott Horton commented:”The one thing that could be predicted with utter confidence on the basis of Garcia’s professional career is that he would zealously protect whoever appointed him and paid his bills. He might actually go after corrupt figures, but only to the extent it served the agenda of the person who appointed him.”

     

     

    And so it has turned out. One of Garcia’s tasks has been to investigate allegations that Blatter handled a 1 million Swiss franc bribe(about £400,000 at the time) from a marketing company intended for the dodgy former FIFA president Joao Havelange. Blatter had to admit handling the money but said that he had no idea that it was a bribe. That’s what we are told Blatter said, because neither transcript nor electronic recording of Garcia’s no doubt rigorous interrogation on his paymaster will be made available.

     

     

    Before hiring Garcia the serpentine Blatter rewrote FIFA’s laughable “ethics code” to ensure that evidence collected in FIFA investigations cannot be revealed. Eat, your heart out, Campbell Ogilvie. Even the date and the place of this performance are suppressed.

     

     

    These are all questions that Greg Dyke could ask in Sao Paulo. Nobody in world football wants to go to sweltering, booze-free Qatar, stepping over the corpses of Nepalese slave labourers. It’s a tough one for slippery Sepp, because if Qatar is cancelled attention will turn to how the oligarchs acquired the 2018 World Cup for Russia. The FIFA lowlifes who “looked after” Qatar likely did the same for Russia. Post Crimea, an open revote could give it to England, a strong contender in the 2010 vote.

     

     

    So dont expect any changes and a whitewash coming officially your way!

  22. Margaret McGill on

    Thunder Road

     

     

    03:23 on 10 June, 2014

     

     

    yeah…and a partridge in a pear tre

  23. Thunder Road on

    BMCUWP

     

     

    Competition?

     

     

    That’s one of mine ;)

     

     

    Hey man, hows things?

  24. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    THUNDER ROAD

     

     

    Haha,I’m fine,bud.

     

     

    You sound pretty good too. Not much wrong wi yer sense of humour anyway.

     

     

    Just on a wee break before heading back out again.

     

     

    Souness was mentioned earlier. Here’s a song in his honour.

     

     

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WNuOSCM9ShQ

  25. Thunder Road on

    Margaret McGill

     

     

    Why would anyone want to go complaining?

     

     

    Best keep quiet.

  26. Margaret McGill on

    Thunder Road

     

     

    03:32 on 10 June, 2014

     

     

    Rangers wont play in Europe until 2017. Best keep quiet.

  30. Margaret McGill on

    Reading back on the blog let me tell you its a sad day for British democracy. I cannot believe it. You will all rue the day that Emmeline Pankhurst butchered that pig halal style all those years ago in Milton keynes savouring its raw blood and shouting “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.”. My god what have we become in this country.

  31. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    THUNDER ROAD

     

     

    Hypothetical of course,but my guess is that they would have been told not to apply.

     

     

    Don’t rock the boat.

  32. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    MARGARET MCGILL

     

     

    I think it’s a sad day when there’s only three people on the blog,and I’m the only one who ain’t named after a rattlin’ good choon!

     

     

    Anyway,nothing wrong wi the types of discussion we had earlier. People have different ideas. I think it’s good that they can be aired.

     

     

    Some of the,erm,corrections can be a bit vitriolic,admittedly!

  34. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    MARGARET MCGILL

     

     

    You’ll need mair than that,bud!

     

     

    You serious about the season ticket,btw? Or was that just a bit of sarcasm?

     

     

    MORRISSEY the 23rd demands to know!!

  35. Margaret McGill on

    BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS

     

     

    03:58 on 10 June, 2014

     

    serious. Its his.

  36. Vhixen88 on

    Prodigal Tim

     

     

    01:41 on 10 June, 2014

     

     

    Anywhere, I can see the Jock Stein BBC Alba show from the USA? iPlayer doesn’t work outside UK.

     

    _______________________________________________________________________

     

     

    If you use Google chrome, try HOLA. Lets you set your IP address to UK .

     

     

    After you get access through HOLA, download the BBC iplayer, then either download the video or press play.

     

     

    Many thanks fellow Tims for sharing links.

     

     

    Hail Hail from sunny California!

  38. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    MARGARET MCGILL

     

     

    Good man!

     

     

    Chuffed for you both.

     

     

    We’re moving seats this year,used to be just to the left of yer bro.

     

     

    Now,onwards and upwards. But not too far upwards,them steps to the upper tier discourage drinking beforehand….

  40. Living_in_the_Love_of_the_Commons_People on

    vhixen88

     

     

    04:00 on 10 June, 2014

     

     

    Thanks for that!!!

     

     

    Working a treat here in Los Angeles tonight.

     

     

    Away to watch and she’d a tear.

  41. Cowiebhoy on

    Dull, damp and misty in ole Bannockburn this morning

     

    But hey

     

     

    I’m still a Bhoy :-) that fair brightens the dhay

     

     

    Need to go, hail Hail

  42. Vhixen88 on

    Living_in_the_Love

     

     

    You’re very welcome, but I can’t take all the credit.

     

     

    @p4ulsatim (Paulsatim) on Twitter told me about HOLA, then worked out the bugs from there. Hope it works for you and every other Tim this side of Paradise.

     

     

    HH

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