I wasn’t engaged in Celtic politics 20 years ago, never attended the Celts for Change meetings and I wasn’t there to hear ‘The rebels have won!’ in person, but it was clear the Celtic Movement had achieved a remarkable revolution.
The old board’s biggest failing was its lack of strategy. 20 years on Fergus McCann rightly receives the plaudits for putting his money where his mouth was but until that very week he was merely one cog in the machine. Celts for Change were the advance party, others, such as McCann and John Keane were the generals, playing a critical role in the revolution, while the circa 30,000 fans who came forward to buy season tickets and shares were the foot soldiers who did the heavy lifting.
It cost £620 to participate in the subsequent share issue. People borrowed money in order to do their bit – in order to help Celtic, while others clubbed together to raise the target amount. This was an era when credit was even less pervasive as it has been in recent years. Thousands ‘did without’ to make this happen, and no one knew this more than Fergus.
The Revolution came 20 years after Jock Stein’s world record nine-in-a-row, but the intervening period brought obscurity in Europe, only once did we progress beyond Christmas and that was after overcoming Dundalk and Partizan Tirana. Six league titles were won.
The 20 years since have produced nine titles, with another in the oven, while former directors of former clubs are talking about the prospect of Celtic winning 10-in-a-row. We’ve had Seville, and lots of genuinely great achievements in the Champions League. It has been a fantastic two decades.
The one thing Fergus drove most thoroughly was his vision of the club’s social mission. Bhoys against Bigotry and Celtic Charity were launched and put squarely in the middle of who we are as a club. The renamed Celtic Foundation has grown and now engages thousands of fans each year in outstanding feats of generosity. If we are not ‘just another club’ this is the reason. If you’re not involved, get involved.
Over the years I’ve heard talk about a monument to Fergus, which would be entirely inappropriate, the man is a low-profile pragmatist, but we’re overlooking the biggest monument in sport. When he took over as managing director, Celtic Park was a magnificent football arena but fit only for our memories. We needed a safe, all-seater stadium. He raised £14m at a share issue, built the biggest football stadium in Britain apart from the decrepit Wembley, and left five years later with the club around £2.5m in debt.
It was an economic miracle which still beggars belief. I cannot explain how on earth this was achieved.
So Fergus, take a bow, you were years ahead of your time; ruthlessly uncompromising, just when we needed the same, but to those who only wanted to do their bit, without a wish for credit or glory, treat yourself this Pancake Tuesday, you deserve it. Every goal since is down to you.
Congratulations to Peter Lawwell on his appointment to the executive board of the European Club Association (ECA), alongside Bayern’s Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Milan’s Umberto Gandini, Ajax’ van der Sar and Ivan Gazidis of Arsenal; a heavy-hitting team. The appointment reflects not only on Peter Lawwell but on the fans and everyone who makes the club what it is.
Celtic are the club who more than any other in Europe have been disenfranchised by the drift of football success away from meritocracy to TV markets. Denied access to the TV markets neighbours enjoy, their status will inevitably decline further compared to those in other territories.
Do the ECA care? They will now. If football is to continue its 150 year tradition as a meritocratic sport, structural change must come. Celtic have been promoting this message consistently for years, so the ECA know who they have invited into the room. Let’s get on with it.
Seville, The Celtic Movement, launches this month.
“The long walk home from the game was memorable for the incredible reaction we got from the locals. They applauded each of us as we walked past their homes in recognition of what took place in their city throughout the day. Things like this don’t happen but that day was different. Seville, like Lisbon, will always remember Celtic.”
Order yours below:
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tonydonnelly67
15:18 on
4 March, 2014
Here’s a scenario, you have a hot date.
I want to ‘scupper it’ (for reasons known only to myself) – you have forgotten the details, which you think i might know – I deliberately give you misleading information.
Have I tried to scupper your date – even if you manage to get the correct details and it’s a success?
Livibhoy
A special post mate.
Philbhoy
Yep I know I think I’ll go to Pardew’s school of anger management :-)
LIVIBHOY
Outstanding.
Celtic to the core.
All this anger.
Watch out you bhoys in green:
From 2006:-
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/09.21/01-anger.html
From 2014:-
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140304/Angry-outbursts-increase-heart-attack-risk.aspx
Auldheid, apologies for late response, holiday thing :-) and thanks again.
I did see these notes previously, without going into my working role, let’s say I would have challenged some of the answers given by Celtic
Please note – I am generally 100% behind our board, hence will generally support,
but,
With regards a suspension, then lifting of such
( if I was to suspend someone, the investigation will follow, prior to any decision, made only at a disciplinary hearing, if such action required)
They removed this groups season tickets, so penalised, did they re-issue them as part of lifting suspension, we know the answer to this, so in my view, have acted in-correctly ?
Areas such as this, and again lack of support for our fans being lifted or being removed for signing songs, is my real frustration.
Right on the back of banning the Green Brigade, I sat in my seat from 107, and witnessed stewards surround a group of young fans, in the corner of opposite stand, as they sang a Celtic song, and remove them, this was posted on YouTube, with 2 stewards covering their face with scarfs or such.
Late I know, but what action did Celtic take for this, I seen the video posted on here, surely someone at Celtic seen it ?
Still 100% a Celtic fan though :-)
Heading out now, and have sent a couple of photos to Doc/CRC, showing our hotel receptions new working clothes :-)
Hail Hail
DBBIA
What Larks
HAMILTON TIM
As long as you don’t go to his school of narcissism.
Philbhoy:
That might’ve been funny if it was not so… well… unfunny and unoriginal.
Tony Donnelly
Feel free to dismiss this as a piece of do-gooding interference but I write it with , I believe, good intentions.
I would identify myself as basically a happy clapper as far as Celtic are concerned. I think it is a default position amongst many in our support to blame the suits in the Board for every failure we encounter. I think we credit the Board with far too much influence and power and rail at them as safe targets, who we believe have much different interests to the support. Up to there I believe we are in agreement.
Where I part company from you is in going close to a position of hero-worshipping them or believing they can do no wrong. My Board, right or wrong, is not a position I can defend nor do I think it is a sensible one.
There are undoubtedly good Celtic men in the Board room but most are paid handsomely for their efforts. For that handsome (too handsome, in my opinion) payment they earn the right to receive informed criticism.
I cannot believe that you rationally believe they have never done anything wrong. It may help for you to reveal a more balanced approach if you would list the occasions on which you disagreed with the opinions or actions of some Board members. It does not have to be vitriolic; it can be balanced and measured criticism. But, if there have been such occasions, you will have to grant license to all those who feel there are such occasions now. You do not have to agree with their reasoning but it seems foolish to adopt a position that says it is alright for me to criticise them but not for you to do likewise.
I was one of the first posters on here that you fell out with. You objected to a story where I presented myself as a young student ( a characterisation you instinctively distrusted) being wronged by a middle aged Labour party female from Castlemilk (a character you immediately felt drawn to defend). Although I can find your instincts , if not admirable at least coming from a good place, I think you overlooked the main point, which was that the woman was wrong. She believed I was a Trot and I can assure you I never was or anything close to it.
It seems that you still fall victim to that delusion even now, in finding a “reds under the bed” explanation for any position that finds fault with the Celtic Board. You have portrayed Jeanette Findlay & The Celtic Trust as a Svengali influence on impressionable young students. That seems to help you rationalise the fact that they can be great supporters of Celtic but yet do harm to a club you love.
I know people who know you Tony. I trust them fully when they tell me that you are great company and good craic. You have shown a ready wit, on occasions, even at my expense, which I can appreciate.
However, in print on CQN, you have come across at times as a Blind Faith Supporter of all the Board do, no matter what it is. Until I read your submissions, I thought the mineshafter criticisms of posters as “Blind Faithers” was juvenile and see-through. You have, unwittingly given them some support for that ludicrous position.
As I said at the start, you may not be in a position to open your ears and hear this but….
There are many posters on here who admire how you stick to your guns and argue your case with some wit. There have been many who have also reacted by “ganging up on you”. I can assure you there is no organised cabal or clique here. Anyone who disagrees with you is expressing their own and only their own position. That goes equally to those who agree with you.
I would recommend that you look at your posting behaviour and examine what it was that brought you into such conflict when you are basically a fun-loving and agreeable kind of guy. How comes you did not manage to project a better image of your real self on here?
My unasked for advice comes from a good place too. I hope you are in a position to receive it with open ears and the better part of your true nature.
It would be a shame if posters with different opinions could not manage to share a pint with you because they got estranged about matters of moderate importance on here.
Oh! and some of the guys that you are arguing with are as big as Tims as you are.
por cierto
15:25 on 4 March, 2014
The majority should have joined in and the atmosphere would have been 1st class.
In crowds of tens of thousands about 300-400 young guys sang non stop and the rest just sat there, the same people now moaning there’s no atmosphere ?
Is it possible that one of the 4 wasn’t a ferret at all but something else entirely :-)
BoxingCleverCSC
MWD
I’m great my friend!
No golf this year so far but itching to get my 9 degree, plutonium shafted, titanium faced, calfs leather gripped, no cut, no hook, straight down the middle guaranteed driver that I bought from Sports Direct, for, err, a tenner last week.
If you fancy agame let me know.
Hope you and yours are well!
I’ve just been told the tickets for my CQteN tables will be with me tomorrow, getting exciting now.
Livibhoy,
‘I had to give my season ticket to a mate 3 years ago when I decided to get married’
Therein lies your problem. You got your priorities all wrong!
It wasn’t a failure because a GB member contacted the person who’d been given bogus information from the Celtic employee quite by chance and the possibility of failure was averted.
____________________
I don’t go with he said, she said, I said, information, never have, never will, sorry not saying it didn’t happen, but there’s no proof that it did, and I doubt very much if CFC go on that kind of information either, as in it’s hard to answer.
traditionalist88
15:25 on 4 March, 2014
No mate I sing at the football, you missed my point the people moaning about the atmosphere are the same people who never joined in with the GB and I’m not talking Huns and CL game and talking about the bread and butter games HH
Kitalba
No offence meant and glad to see you and CGT have called atruce.
Life’s to short.
Take care.
SFTB – you should do a write up like that for every CQN’er. Could be very funny though I imagine we’d fall out! lollol
MWD
Livibhoy-helluva post,haste ye back.With the wee yin.HH
moonbeams wd. kano 2000 \o/ supporting neil lennon 29.9%. champions. c’mon wee oscar.
15:25 on 4 March, 2014
TonyDonnelly all 6′s & 7′s (the official Celtic Oracle)
Is it dark up there?
MWD
______________________
I doubt it’s as dark as the one they put you in when you don’t take yer meds.
I saw a wee stoat earlier the day.
Any day you see a stoat is a good day, IMHO.
..unless of course you’re a baby rabbit.
Puyol to leave Barca at end of the season……him and Zlatan will fill CP….
tonydonnelly67
15:35 on 4 March, 2014
It wasn’t a failure because a GB member contacted the person who’d been given bogus information from the Celtic employee quite by chance and the possibility of failure was averted.
____________________
I don’t go with he said, she said, I said, information, never have, never will, sorry not saying it didn’t happen, but there’s no proof that it did, and I doubt very much if CFC go on that kind of information either, as in it’s hard to answer.
——
Tony, where have I said all the ‘he said/she said type stuff?
I’m telling you that is what happened.
Your refusal to accept anything that is posted because it goes against your own perceptions is doing you no favours.
Intro: Am |G | Dm | Am (5 times)
G
Do you remember a club that’s been
Em7
In such an early song
C
I’ve heard a rumour from Channel four
D
Oh no, don’t say it’s true
F
They got a message from Charlie Green
C Em F
I’m happy, hope you’re happy too
G
you’ve paid all you needed tooooooo
E/G#
Sordid details following
A
The milking to nothing is killing
E
Just phoney press releases solely for you
G D
Ain’t got no money and you ain’t got no flair
F C Em
So your hoping to kill the game but it’s glowing___
F G
sashes to ashes, Laudrup to Daly
C Am
Salary McCoist a money junkie
F Gthanks ben
All those expensive shares
Am G Dm
Hitting an all-time low
Am | G | Dm | Am | (Play 4 Times)
G
Time and again you tell yourself
Em7
We’ll stay alive tonight
C D
But the Charlie Greens wheels are following you___
Oh no, not again
F
Your stuck with expensive friends
C Em F
I’m happy, hope you’re happy too
G E/G#
Another denial but no smoking pistol
A
you´ve never done good things
E
you´ve only done bad things
G D
You´d never did anything to harm the blues, woh-oh-oh
F
Want an axe to break their legs
C Em
Wanna come down right now
F G
Sashes to ashes, Laudrup to Daly
C Am
Salary Mc Coist a money junkie
F G
All those expensine shares
Am G Dm
Hitting an all-time low
Dm Am
My lawyer said to get things done
G Dm
You’d better not mess a hedge fund
Am G
My lawyer said to get things done
Dm Am
You’d better not mess with a hedge fund
Outro
Am G Dm Am repeat ’til fade
enjoy :)
weeminger
15:28 on 4 March, 2014
tonydonnelly67
15:18 on
4 March, 2014
Here’s a scenario, you have a hot date.
I want to ‘scupper it’ (for reasons known only to myself) – you have forgotten the details, which you think i might know – I deliberately give you misleading information.
Have I tried to scupper your date – even if you manage to get the correct details and it’s a success?
_____________________________________
This isn’t working for me, my missing some thing?
Eddieinkirkmichael
15:10 on
4 March, 2014
Well, well, well… What do we have here? Is this possibly the new section for the #GreenBrigade?
https://twitter.com/LeeFlood27/status/440859847685599232/photo/1
Secret tunnel to Glasgow City Chambers?
StateAid CSC
Jungle Jim
It’s an honest assessment of where I am. It pains me any game that I can’t attend but It’s situation I generated myself. I will appreciate it all the more when I am back.
Voguepunter
I will be on the bevvy and slavering absolute nonsense.
traditionalist88
All the best for the wedding. My advice would be to let your future wife organise everything.
Geordie Munro
It is just an honest assessment. I saw everyone elses reasons for maybe giving them up and I had to recount why I had to give up my season ticket. Pains me to say I am no longer a ST holder. I usually just say it is on loan – which it is!
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS ………FC not PLC
Apreciate that.
Kingoh
Hahahahaha. I was waiting for that.
Sorry if I have missed anyone.
LB
Is that where we get the expression “a stoating day”?
TonyDonnelly all 6’s and 7’s
you disapoint me! SFTB just alluded to you being witty.
:(
MWD expects better retorts from you.
Kitalba,
I take it that you heading to bed is like neganons and Kevs bhoycotts?
HT
who was the GB member, and who was the Celtic representative, simple question, then there’s no he said, she said, get it?
Jungle Jim
15:14 on
I did mate, I just posted as it may have given someone a fright lol
tonydonnelly67
15:48 on 4 March, 2014
HT
who was the GB member, and who was the Celtic representative, simple question, then there’s no he said, she said, get it?
——–
Unlike some I won’t be posting personal details on a public forum.
LiviBhoy
Cheers buddy – we will forgive you loaning out the season book if you bring back a squadron to CP in the near future – just think Leigh Griffiths… ;)
HH
setting free the bears supports res. 12 & oscar knox
15:31 on 4 March, 2014
That is a good post.
One thing you wrote, however, stood out to me. You said:
“There have been many who have also reacted by “ganging up on you”. I can assure you there is no organised cabal or clique here”.
As someone on the outside of these arguments, but observing them, I do get the impression that a gang does swing into action to attack TD67. Now I’m sure TD67 is big enough and ugly enough (just a guess having never met him) to defend himself.
So what gives me the impression of gang behaviour? 3 things:
* the discussions are rarely 1:1. They usually start that way but end up many:1
* the asides that take place between the many, often not directed to TD67, but often about him
* few come in to help TD67. I don’t believe this is because his view on the current state of the club isn’t shared by others, but because individuals are naturally reluctant to be seen as against the majority. The “gang”.
I’ve no idea if there is a cabal or a clique. I’ve no idea if those giving “handers” are pals. Only they know.
Anyway that is my impression of what I read too often on this blog.
Oue Stoatir
Livi Bhoy
Another outstanding post to add to your recent one on Leigh Griffiths.
MWD
Maybe TD is funny, if judged by my level of funniness.