Celtic Football Club is a Scottishfootball club based in Glasgow, Scotland, which competes in the Scottish Premier League, the highest form of competition in Scotland. The full name of the club is The Celtic Football Club. Until 1994, the club's full name was The Celtic Football and Athletic Company Ltd. Celtic play home games at Celtic Park commonly referred to as Parkhead, which has a capacity of 60,832, and is currently the largest football stadium in Scotland. In 2006-07, Celtic Park attracted an average attendance of 57,927,[1] making the club second after Manchester United [2] in average attendance for any football club in the UK. Together with their rivals, Rangers F.C., they form the Old Firm which is one of the most famous and fierce rivalries in sport. Celtic has traditionally been linked with its founding roots which stemmed from the Irish immigrant community in Glasgow. In 1967, Celtic became the first British team to win the European Champions Cup, which had previously been the preserve of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish clubs. Celtic won every competition that they entered that season: the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the European Cup and the Glasgow Cup. Additionally, Celtic remain the only Scottish club ever to have reached the final, and are the only club ever to win the trophy with a team composed entirely of home-grown talent;[3][4] as all of the players in the side were Scottish, and all were born within a 30-mile radius of Celtic Park. Celtic again reached the European Cup final in 1970, only to be beaten by Feyenoord in extra time. In 2003 Martin O'Neill led the team to the UEFA Cup final in Seville where they lost 3-2 to F.C. Porto after extra time. Around 80,000 Celtic supporters travelled to Seville for the final.[5][6][7] The club's traditional playing colours are green and white hooped shirts and white shorts with white socks. Celtic are one of the best-supported clubs in the world, with an estimated fanbase of approximately nine million.[8] Celtic won the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Cup in 2006-07 season.
Celtic Football Club was formally constituted at a meeting in St. Mary's Church hall on East Rose Street (now Forbes Street), Calton, Glasgow, by an Irish Marist brother named Brother Walfrid originally from Ballymote in County Sligo on 6 November, 1887. The charity established by Brother Walfrid was named The Poor Children's Dinner Table. Walfrid's move to establish the club as a means of fund raising was largely inspired by the example of Hibernian F.C. who were formed out of the immigrant Irish population thirteen years earlier in Edinburgh. On 28 May, 1888, Celtic played their first official match against Rangers and won 5-2 in what was described as a "friendly encounter". Celtic had 8 'guest' players from Hibernian playing that day.
The Old Firm and sectarianism
The term sectarian refers to a group who belongs to a religious and cultural sect, and display contempt, hatred or dislike of all others, not belonging to their sect. Celtic have a historic association with the peoples of Ireland and Scots of Irish extraction, who are both predominantly Catholic. However, they have never had a restrictive or discriminatory signing policy. In recent times both clubs have taken measures to combat sectarianism. Working alongside the Scottish Parliament, church groups and community organisations, the Old Firm has clamped down on sectarian songs, inflammatory flag-waving, and troublesome supporters, using increased levels of policing and surveillance.[9][10] In 1996, for instance, Celtic launched their Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign, later followed by Youth Against Bigotry to "educate the young on having ... respect for all aspects of the community - all races, all colours, all creeds", according to then chief executive Ian McLeod.[11] In October 2006, club chairman Brian Quinn dismissed calls to institute a list of what songs are unacceptable at Celtic Park and chief executive Peter Lawwell defended the singing of "Irish ballads" at matches.[12] A small minority of the Celtic traveling support regularly sing songs which include lyrics supporting the Irish Republican Army. This followed action by Rangers in response to a 2006 UEFA fine for singing sectarian songs.[13] In November 2007, Jeanette Findlay, head of The Celtic Trust - an organisation made up of around 200 club shareholders and supporters, caused controversy by claiming that certain songs about IRA which were sung by a section of the Celtic support were not pro-terrorist.[14][15] Findlay's remarks were widely criticised and described as "unrepresentative" by the club.[16]
Celtic and the media
The Celtic View, the oldest football club magazine in the United Kingdom.
Celtic have always attempted to engage directly with the fans and bypass the traditional media outlets as a method of communicating accurate information to the outside world about the inner workings of the club. In 1965 Celtic began publishing The Celtic View, the UK's first ever regular football club newspaper. In 2004 Celtic launched its own digital TV channel Celtic TV available in the UK through Setanta Sports on satellite and cable platforms. Since 2002 Celtic's Internet TV channel, Channel67 (previously known as Celtic Replay), has broadcast Celtic's own content worldwide, offers live match coverage to subscribers outside the UK, and now provides 3 online channels.
Following a close race for the SPL title, with Rangers closely following, the club extended their lead at the top of the SPL table to two points as they lined up for the final game of the season, with a win at Motherwell F.C. required to seal the title. With two minutes remaining on the clock, Celtic were leading 1 – 0 — a result which would have handed them the league. However, Motherwell's Scott McDonald (now playing for Celtic) netted two last-minute goals. Rangers defeated Hibernian 1 – 0 at Easter Road, thereby winning the league championship title. Earlier in the season Celtic recorded a record seventh straight win over city rivals Rangers. Celtic ended the season one week later with a 1–0 win over Dundee United F.C. in the Scottish Cup Final, which was marked by fans as Martin O'Neill's final match as manager. On 25 May, 2005, O'Neill announced he would resign as manager of Celtic at the end of 2004-05 season along with first team coach Steve Walford and assistant manager John Robertson. It was widely reported that O'Neill decided to take time out of football in order to care for his ailing wife Geraldine, who is ill with lymphoma. He is currently manager of Aston Villa F.C.
Former Aberdeen F.C. player and Scotland international Gordon Strachan took charge of the club on 1 June2005, on a 12-month rolling contract, similar to O'Neill's arrangement with the club; his contract effectively extending for one calendar year from any current date. Garry Pendrey was appointed as Strachan's assistant manager. In his first competitive match, against Artmedia Bratislava on 27 July, 2005, Celtic lost 5-0 in the first leg of an important Champions League 2nd Round qualifier, suffering the worst European defeat in the club's history and the widest margin of defeat since the 1963-64 season, when the club lost 6-0 to Kilmarnock F.C. at Rugby Park. In the second leg of the match against Artmedia Bratislava they won 4-0 but were eliminated from European competition on aggregate. In Strachan's first domestic match of the 2005-06 SPL season, Celtic relinquished a 3-1 half-time lead over Motherwell at Fir Park on 30 July2005, the game ending in a 4-4 draw after Celtic managed to equalise through a goal by Craig Beattie. The nine goals against Celtic in Strachan's first two competitive matches is the biggest goal tally scored against the club in successive matches for 14 years. However, following these setbacks, and a defeat against Rangers in the pair's first match of the season at Ibrox, Celtic recorded a series of victories, including beating Rangers twice, and returned to the top of the SPL - a vast improvement on their form at the start of the season. Celtic knocked arch rivals Rangers out of the League cup on 19 November2005. Celtic were knocked out of the Scottish Cup on 8 January2006 by First Division side Clyde F.C. Celtic beat Rangers again on 12 February to make it 17 wins from the previous 21 Old Firm games. Celtic won the CIS Cup, with a 3-0 win over Dunfermline Athletic on 19 March. They created a new scoring record for the SPL, an 8-1 victory against Dunfermline in February 2006, where Maciej Żurawski scored 4 goals and assisted in 2 others. On 5 April2006 Celtic clinched their 40th title thanks to a goal from John Hartson in a 1-0 win against Hearts at Celtic Park. The title was Celtic's fourth title in six years. This feat was achieved with six games remaining until the end of the season and before the SPL split. The Bhoys lifted the SPL trophy on Easter Sunday 2006 at home to Hibernian, after a 1-1 draw. In April 2006, Celtic's reserve and Under-19 teams also won their championships, completing a clean sweep of Scotland's league competitions. Celtic's reserve team have now won their league 5 years in a row and the Under-19 have won their league 4 years in a row.
Such was the good form of Celtic and the lack of a clear rival in the early stages of the 2006/07 season, that bookmakers Paddy Power took the unprecedented step of paying out on Celtic as the winners of the SPL on November 4, 2006, only 13 games into the season. By mid-November Celtic were 15 points clear of their nearest challengers. On November 21, Celtic defeated Manchester United 1-0 at home earning them qualification to the knockout stage of the last 16 teams for the first time since the format was altered in 1993, drawing AC Milan. After both legs of the tie ended 0-0, Celtic's Champions League run was ended by a solitary Milan goal in extra-time. During the January 2007 transfer window Celtic signed Scotland internationals and former Hearts players Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley, full-back Jean-Joël Perrier-Doumbé from Rennes on loan and goalkeeper Mark Brown from Inverness Caledonian Thistle. On April 22, 2007 Celtic won their 41st league championship, and second in a row. The title was won by an injury-time free-kick from Shunsuke Nakamura in a 2-1 victory against Kilmarnock.[17] The result left Celtic 13 points clear of Rangers with four matches remaining. They then finished the season 12 points above Rangers. On 26 May2007 Celtic won the Scottish Cup for a 34th time after beating Dunfermline 1-0. The winner was scored by Jean-Joël Perrier-Doumbé in the 84th minute.
The club was drawn against Russian side Spartak Moscow in the third round of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League 2007-08. The tie ended in a penalty shootout, with Artur Boruc saving twice to ensure Celtic's passage to the next round. This was Celtic's first European penalty shootout victory. They competed against A.C. Milan, S.L. Benfica and FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stages, going unbeaten at home but losing all their road matches. They finished second in their group, ensuring qualification to the knockout stage for the second year in successions, where they drew FC Barcelona. The club's first signing of the winter transfer window was Andreas Hinkel.
Records
The Scottish Cup final win against Aberdeen F.C. in 1937 was attended by a crowd of 146,433 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which remains a record for a club match in European football.
Celtic currently hold the UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football: 62 games (49 won, 13 drawn), from 13 November, 1915 until 21 April, 1917- a total of 17 months and four days in all (they lost at home to Kilmarnock F.C. on the last day of the season).
Celtic also hold the SPL record for an unbeaten run of home matches (77), spanning from 2001 to 2004 (this run was ended by a 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen on 21 April, 2004), and the record for the longest run of consecutive wins in a single season (25 matches).
Record European victory 9-0 KPV Kokkola (Finland), 1970.
Record European defeat: 0-5 against FC Artmedia Bratislava on 27 July, 2005.
Record victory against Rangers: 7-1 1957 Scottish league cup final.
Complete record v Rangers P371 W133 D91 L147 F508 A529
Record points earned in a season: 72 (Premier Division, 1987/88, 2 points for a win); 103 (Scottish Premier League, 2001/02, 3 points for a win), also the SPL points tally record.
Record home attendance: 92,000 against Rangers in 1938. A 3-0 victory for Celtic.
Hold the record for the highest attendance for a European club competition match: Celtic v Leeds United in the European Cup semi-final 1970 at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Official attendance 136,505.
Earliest SPL Championship won. Won with 6 games to go against Kilmarnock on 18 April, 2004 and Hearts on 5 April, 2006.
First weekly club publication in the UK, The Celtic View.
Biggest margin of victory in the SPL. 8-1 against Dunfermline, February 2006.
First stadium in the UK to stage motorcycle speedway racing on 28 April1928.
Celtic and Hibernian hold the record for the biggest transfer fee between two Scottish clubs. Celtic bought Scott Brown from Hibernian on 16 May, 2007 for £4.4m.[20][21]
John Reid
