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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And I seen quite a few mongoose on safari :-)
Hail Hail, need to head off oot
LB
Brilliant post !
That’s what supporting our club is all about and how true you are to say and put your family first
Like many I had the good fortune to be brought up by hardworking parents who loved their family,faith and club in that order
You are a credit to yourself and your family -hope it’s not too long before you get back on a regular basis.
Our gates are down for a number of reasons -one certainly being the poor atmosphere
In the ground
Safe standing is a no brainier for me and if the GB decide that they are CFC supporters first and GB members second then I hope they get the standing section!
HH
As I said, NO CASE, anyone can come on here and make accusations, that’s all I’m saying on it.
Auldheid
When the nevin debate was ongoing on here , I posted to you that although nevin lowered himself to take the soup , we should be hunting the guy who has introduced the hatred for celtic onto the bbc , you responded to me that the name of the bigot at the beeb was known , but it was higher up that we were after . I take it that if the Richard Wilson rumour is to be believed , then I take it no progress has been made in weeding out the anti celtic/catholic Element within that organisation . It seems that company only employ Wilson’s type .
Nice photos of the blog sweetheart…
setting free the bears supports Res. 12 & Oscar Knox
I think people were misguided on Leigh Griffiths through the media. I wanted to put some wrongs about him right because I knew he was going to be in the Hoops.
I think people have only seen a glimpse of what the Bhoy is capable of. We have a lad who is desperate to wear the jersey and his hungry for goals. His attitude looks spot on. he gets it! he knows what it is to play for Celtic. As I regularly say to the Jambos at work he is thumb player!
Bada
Thanks mate.
LB
Tom Molach
My point is that, even though all those individual posters take up a position against, say TD on this occasion, then that was a series of individual decisions to post, which merely coincided. It was not a conspiracy arranged by phone call or text. The fact that it was a bigger majority only proves that it was an unpopular, though not necessarily wrong, opinion.
A blog will contain a load of people who find the views there congenial and agreeable. To that extent, there is a shared set of viewpoints which may be mistaken for clique or cabal opinion.
That illusion of gregarious agreement can be shattered by a single troll, wind-up merchant, Big C practitioner, or even an innocent who makes his point badly. It can be deliberate or accidental.
dontbrattbakkinanger
15:38 on 4 March, 2014
“I saw a wee stoat earlier the day”
Can I ask where? I saw something in Paisley on Monday and thought it might be a Weasel (do we get them here?), and thought it probably wasn’t a stoat as I thought they would have white coats at this time of year.
SFTB
you do have a point sir. ;)
MWD
setting free the bears supports res. 12 & oscar knox
15:31 on 4 March, 2014
First class post
Tom Molach- on the back road to Torthorwald.
It had a definite dark brown tail so I’m pretty sure it was a stoat.
Even when they have their white winter coats the tail is still dark.
tonydonnelly67
15:42 on
4 March, 2014
Yes. HT said they ‘tried’ to scupper the action, you then pull him up because he said it ‘could’ have failed due to disinformation.
I’m merely showing in my scenario that just because your hot date was successful, it doesn’t mean I didn’t try to scupper it.
Just for background. With every board action, I believe they think they’re doing what’s best for the club. Otherwise it means we have people in our employment that deliberately do things that are against the interests of the club, and I can’t accept that.
Does that mean that what they do is always best for the fans, or even a particular set of fans? No, of course not but that’s life but those fans are still within their rights to complain.
I’ve also worked in the Ticket Office, so I know for a fact that some things have taken place that were unfair for the wider fan base while favouring other fans. It was an unfortunate side-effect of what was happening at the time but required for business purposes.
Livibhoy
Just scrolled back and read your wonderful post.
It is articles like that that make this blog a joy.
You have stated your current position.
From mine, you come accross as a wonderful Dad and Husband.
Thank you and best wishes to you and your young family.
SFTB
you are buddy.
There is a large group of us who have each other on speed dial and can organise a conference in seconds to decide upon whom the clique should gang up on and when.
We will call you soon with regards some more machiavellian posts from you.
MWD peeasshing himself larfing.
SFTB
Jeanette called me and told me Tony had been posting nonsense again and to jump on and support the backlash. I said its been a while, will stop what I’m doing and investigate.
I must admit I’d forgotten the rules of engagement with Tony – from now on, if anyone else disagrees with him, I will refrain at least until the next page;)
HH
croppybhoy
It is probably a more honest post than I would like to make public but I amongst friends.
I have read with interest a number of people who are considering giving up their ticket for next season. My advice would be not to. It is not always easy being a Celtic supporter but it’s always worth while. I think that was what Fergus said anyway. I can relate to that.
Family has to come first. Once the wee man starts speaking we will start on the Celtic songs. He needs to be ready! Hopefully get him to a friendly this season or early next season. If there is a game at Murrayfield pre-season that will be perfect for us. We can walk to the game from our flat. Just thinking about taking my Bhoy to the game excites me. I hope he gets into it as much as me but not to the extent that he lets things slip in his life. I didn’t do badly just not as well as I could have. That is being sorted now.
LB
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
12:14 on
4 March, 2014
shameless repost, New article just after posting :-(
Auldheid
11:14 on
4 March, 2014
My take on the ECA is the same as when they issued the ‘same’ club nonsense about Sevco. They are an utter irrelevance. European football is governed by one maxim “profit”. There will be no change, no implementation of the much vaunted FFP, regardless of loobying, as long as the game is primarily run as a business first with sporting integrity and competition being a very distant second in order of priority.
UEFA are powerless to act against the ‘rich’ clubs. They have the Sword of Damocles hanging over them. Implement FFP and the rich clubs resign from their respective associations and form their own European super league taking all the TV sponsorship with them and leaving UEFA with nothing but a multitude of backwater soon to be penniless leagues. FIFA would be powerless to intervene apart from banning the super league players from participating in a WC. Would the majority care? Not a chance when they are earning obscene amounts of cash playing club football, the world cup is a merely wee bauble. Would this European football ‘Armageddon’ scenario benefit Celtic ? Undoubtedly if we were to receive an invite to participate in the league of greed, which is incidentally the only way I can envisage Celtic being able to ply their trade out with Scotland for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps PLs energies may be best directed at lobbying UEFA to do something about the SFA (if he hasn’t done so already) or lobbying the Scots government to repeal the offensive behavior bill (again maybe he has done so already)
======================
The last thing the ECA are is an irrelevance. They are the body that reflects the maxim profit approach and it is because most member clubs want to make a profit (or at least not go bust) that the ECA agreed the UEFA FFP Strategy as a means of exerting downward pressure on players wages, the biggest single factor contributing to loss and not profit.
Thus the ECA and UEFA work hand in hand at trying to keep the game alive and there is a recognition that unless the trend that the ECA forced on UEFA to funnel most of CL money in the direction of big clubs is changed then we will have an elite league by default and Celtic will not be part of it.
So the positioning of PL there is crucial to Celtic’s future, to either get more CL money diverted to smaller leagues (not the participating club but the league itself) to help wage competition between smaller countries and larger or move towards a European League for clubs with large population centres and support as a result.
That is why Paul67 mentions it in his lead article and why the ECA is very relevant.
Now on FFP, there are 76 clubs who fail the rules this season. I see from TBB that some clubs with £50M debt are still allowed in and that is where FFP fails but the amount of debt allowable drops each year to £30M + £5M in 2018/19 and if offending clubs that are not meeting that year on year reduction are excluded then wages that are debt fueled will drop.
It is contrived, it is a sport lawyers dream and it is unwieldy but it is nevertheless an attempt at wage control. Me? I would have introduced a European Wage cap and sod employee rights but that would have been a lawyers dream also. The thing that has screwed the FFP effectiveness is oil daddies. The sums these guys are prepared to lose and skew the game in the process stretches FFP towards if not past breaking point.
I would tightly define what football related earnings are allowed (which I think is possibly the case – the break even rules are a nightmare I have not stepped into) and set a cap on each defined income stream.
When you say what rich clubs will do, there are not so many in that category, and they are heavily outnumbered by not so rich but very well run clubs or even not so well run, not so rich clubs, that have a vote in the ECA and are watching UEFA to see FFP is applied properly.
With regard to what else PL might do I think he will have more than enough to go to UEFA with at the right time and Celtic have not been inactive on the OBB according to this from The Supporters Forum.
Q. The Club has stated its opposition to the OBTC Act but there is a sense that it has to do more in support of the fans who are affected by this, will the Club take a more vocal position?
A. It has always been a fundamental part of the Club’s objection that the legislation discriminates against football supporters, criminalising them for being a football supporter, rather than for the nature of any behaviour. The Club made its position public on the Act through its submission to the Scottish Government and we have delivered public comment on a number of occasions outlining our opposition regarding this legislation. We will continue to do this where appropriate and are already planning to develop this further.
Tom Molach
Can say that there have been several occasions when I’ve deliberately not posted in reply to TD for the very reason that I DON’T want it to appear as though another poster is being ganged up on.
Posters reply to him because of his narrow mindedness and his reluctance to actually engage in debate.
Livibhoy at 15.02
Fantastic post!
Hail, Hail!
dontbrattbakkinanger
16:05 on 4 March, 2014
“…..on the back road to Torthorwald”.
Ah well! It couldn’t have been mine, unless it took a bus down the M74 ;-)
Even wee stoatirs are significantly bigger than big weasels.
Weeminger
Get your facts right, here’s the original post, stop putting a twist on it, please.
___________________
tonydonnelly67
13:46 on 4 March, 2014
hamiltontim is praying for oscar
12:02 on 4 March, 2014
timaloy29
11:58 on 4 March, 2014
It has been claimed that some within Celtic deliberately attempted to scupper the Food Drive by the Green Brigade.
Certainly after initially stating that the club would highlight and support the initiative they renaged on this, sadly.
In my opinion that’s ‘questionable credentials’.
____________________
Honestly you need help, that is just one horrible statement you made about my club, you should not be involved with my club in any way, form or manner, as far as I see it, you are a very dangerous person for my club and should be avoided at all times, as I have said the Benedict Arnolds on this blog need watched very, very, carefully, I would say without fear it’s …YOUR CREDENTIALS that are up for question, without a doubt in my mind, your a wrong yin.
Stoats are welcome on most forms of public transport.
Q. What’s the difference between a stoat and weasel?
jimtim
15:55 on
4 March, 2014
Auldheid
When the nevin debate was ongoing on here , I posted to you that although nevin lowered himself to take the soup , we should be hunting the guy who has introduced the hatred for celtic onto the bbc , you responded to me that the name of the bigot at the beeb was known , but it was higher up that we were after . I take it that if the Richard Wilson rumour is to be believed , then I take it no progress has been made in weeding out the anti celtic/catholic Element within that organisation . It seems that company only employ Wilson’s type .
=====================
I do not recall that exchange. sounds to me it was more likely with BRTH as I do not have a clue who the BBC bigot is/was.
Afternoon all,
Great post Paul, so sweet to see what is going on across the city 20 years after the Bunnet
sailed the good ship Celtic away from stormy waters and saved us from capsizing and eventually sinking.
Hope the sevconians are swimming around without lifebelts for years to come, whilst the sharks circle and pick them off.
hahahahahahahah
over and out from Captain Pugwash
A. A Weasel is weasily wecognised and a stoat is stoataly different
Check please!
Dontbrattbakkinanger
Any day that your alive is a good day circa Paul Westerbeg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4CN7TM1iQ&list=PL3CEF3AE89657FAD9
I see the stoat and weasel clique have bombed oot the ferrets.
The pine martens are delighted, more leg room.
Ferret’s a grand ole team to play for…
Philbhoy
I am trying my best. Not going to Celtic games for me during my teens and 20’s was unthinkable. I am on a sabatical. My wife knows that. My son knows of very little. He may not take to the football. I have to be prepared for that. I think he will. He watches games now with me and loves to kick his ball around and shout goal. Well it sounds like goal. He may have other interests outside football and these may take my time on a Saturday or other match days. I will have to go back though. I can’t think of a sustained period of my life when I am not a regular at Celtic Park. I have shares and I want to buy more. I want that legacy to be passed down to my son and his children.
Apart from not going to the football I have never been happier in my adult life. It’s about balance. Going forward my life will have more balance. Celtic are still huge. They will always be there. It will never deminish. It won’t be number 1 in my life but it will be close after my family.
LB
If anyone hasn’t got a ticket for CQteN, let me know.
doccqten@gmail.com
TonyDonnelly67
I’d suggest it is lemmings like your good self that are more dangerous to our club!
MWD
weeminger
16:05 on 4 March, 2014
————————————————————-
I’ve also worked in the Ticket Office, so I know for a fact that some things have taken place that were unfair for the wider fan base while favouring other fans. It was an unfortunate side-effect of what was happening at the time but required for business purposes
——————————
When and what took place then?
@Awe Naw just ran thru it there feckin class.
H.h.
Posters reply to him because of his narrow mindedness and his reluctance to actually engage in debate.
________________________
Fed up wi this, for the umpteenth time, my opinion is my opinion, it’s not up for debate, it’s my opinion, I post my opinion mostly when people are slagging, my club, my board, my team my manager, and PL, you can play all your silly little games any time you want, I defend all that I posted there and I am answerable to no one, one more timeNO ONE, what’s not to get in that? I leave the debating for the lurking Huns in here you all think are Tims,
Phil needs help
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/help-required-2/#more-4442
We shall not weasel not be moved