Picture this, Celtic had just avoided oblivion the previous year in 1994.
According to David Low, Fergus McCann’s go-to guy in the takeover, the club that won the European Cup on May 25th, 1967 were EIGHT minutes from foreclosure.
The paperwork had been finally signed in the Bank of Scotland offices in St Vincent Street in Glasgow.
It was the era of the landline and the fax machine.
Indeed, Fergus McCann had arrived in Scotland before his money, and his journey had taken him from the golf course in Phoenix, Arizona to Glasgow to save the club.
He handed over £1million to stave off an insolvency event and at that moment became an unsecured creditor.
The negotiations then had to begin with the old board as they wanted to be paid off.
However, the Bunnet didn’t want to part with One Thin Dime!
In the end, he put £1m on the table to be divided between them.
Outside the fans were waiting.
I was one of them.
Finally, the Bunnet and Brian Dempsey came out to the hardy souls awaiting news that the Ancien Régime was gone.
In the months that followed the new board at Celtic paid off all of the bills and set about bringing in new investment and commercial partners.
Across the city, David Murray was spending the bank’s money as if there was no tomorrow.
Indeed, there was no shortage of corporate suitors who wanted to be associated with the success machine at Ibrox.
One of them was Ian Bankier.
This piece from the Herald in 1995 is worth a read.
Here is the key quote:
Mr Bankier said: ”We have had an association with the club for a long time and that association was the platform on which the success of the Scottish Leader brand has been based.
”We have had a box at Ibrox since 1989, have had trackside adverts at the stadium, and our products have been put into the stadium bars.
”The invitation to become an associate director was to Bill personally and the company put up the money to pay for it because we believed it made good commercial sense for us to do so.”
I was not aware of this information in October 2011 when I asked the newly appointed Celtic chairman about his earliest memories of the Hoops.
Regular readers will know of his toe-curling replies to my quite simple questions:
What was your first Celtic match?
Who was your first Celtic hero?
The Parkhead club is now at another 1994 moment.
Now, I do NOT mean that Celtic is facing down the barrel of financial oblivion.
However, a root and branch overhaul of the boardroom and corporate structure is now vital.
A sacrificial lamb or two will not suffice.
I am aware of one highly regarded manager who recently, via his representatives, let it be known that the club’s current structure was unprofessional and unacceptable.
By that, the prospective manager (I know his identity) stated that he wasn’t willing to work with a CEO who was effectively the unofficial and, crucially, unqualified director of football.
Mr Bankier was one of the many appointments that Mr Lawwell has overseen in his SEVENTEEN years at Celtic.
Of course, it would be stretching credulity to think that Pedro was not aware of the new chairman’s Ibrox associations.
This season has been a disaster.
It should not be wasted.
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John Reid was is not a Tory either he was Labour, I think Home Secretary.
I was there in 94 too as a wean but ffs, Phil, your breaking my heart here bud.
I read with interest, that John Reid is Celtic through and through…well so am I….so no difference there…put me on the Board.
I also see that he is “credited” with holding 5 Senior Cabinet Posts…well that, in my opinion, is because he failed in the 5 of them…His track record in this regard is pretty dismal.
As for him being a Peer…well if the day ever dawns when Reid, Prescott, McConnell, Kinnock ( Mr & Mrs ) Blunkett, Boateng, Liddell, et al…hand back the Ermine and get back to their roots…then that’s the day when I might….just might mind you…re-join the Labour Party and give them my vote again.
The chances of that happening, however , are as remote as Dermot Desmond really caring about the Club and taking an active interest in it.
My…How the mighty have fallen.
If the SFA and SPFL can resurrect dead Rangers in 2012 from liquidation, call The Rangers founded by Charles green as the same club with same titles to this day then they can null and void this Covid pandemic season.
Failing that, there’s still 2 years or more to have a judicial review of the Supreme Court ruling on the illegality of Rangers FC EBTs and declare all their EBT won trophies null and void. That’s 13 trophies including five SPLs.
This is the club that agitated something embarrassingly rotten last year regarding wanting null and void to get Res12 binned as a concession. Well they need to accept null and void this season or lose the 13 EBT trophies re the Supreme Court ruling they were unlawful.
Two can play at their dirty games.
This is a dud, zero sporting integrity season. Pandemic. Zero fans. People dying ffs and they’re playing football and group hugging on goals.
Appalling example to society and young people in general. Wake up football authorities and ScotGov! Get your incompetent arses in order!
I have to agree on abandoning this season. All risk assessments are null and void. They don’t take into account the new variant Covids in Scotland. The Essex mutation and the Brasil mutation. Fast spreading highly infectious.
Can the SFA guarantee that no elderly person has died in Scotland in 2020 due to football matches being played? That no trackside staff, tv crew, management or players has infected a partner or kids or pals who infected others until an old person died? It is indeed recklessness and selfishness given the ultra sacrifices of others.
I’m sorry but if we’re hoping for a null and void being called on the season to rescue us. Then that’s more embarrassing than being 20 odd points behind, and the potential of losing the league in early February.
We’d have a different cry if it were us running away with the league and then imploding.
The signs of failure were there to be seen from the start of the season. But for whatever reason Desmond has allowed the club to go from one disaster to the next. Every time us fans thinking it can’t get any worse, and yet it does.
I just hope Desmond has plans in place to start next season with major changers, And it’s not the usual all last minute appointments, with no time for a new manager to bring in decent signings before it kicks off in full
Half way through January and no new signings.
A couple of quick (experienced) loan signings might have meant 3 points v Hibs and who knows what will happen against in-form Livvie tomorrow.
At least Bitton is back tomorrow but hopefully not in defence and not at the expense of the bhoy Welsh.
But no action taken whatsoever.
Only shows to me that they have all given up on the title already.
Shame on them.
There’s no way Lennon is getting another season. New players are for a new manager to decide.
Be embarrassing spending money on any transfer after furloughing the youth team. Plus why give Lennon any money to spend. He surely won’t be the manager come the start of next season!
Keep the pressure up on the parasites
John Reid, don,t care how many games he has attended what has he ever done to save the pride of the club or the fans,guys like him were in positions of power when Celtic were under pressure from the media cover-ups of multiple wrongdoings from across the city. Even now there is deathly silence from the suits at Parkhead…….silence is compliance. They should all go,I guess the price of a heated seat is keeping shtum.
This season should never have started in such a pandemic.
The SFA, SPFL and Scottish Govt have all been incompetent in allowing it.
If CFC are incompetent regarding Dubai then the above three were incompetent, yet again, in nodding it through.
There is zero sporting integrity to this virus affected season. It’s a dud season.
A season without supporting fans in an outdoor stadium sport is utterly ridiculous. Money Motivated Madness.
Attempting a season with zero fans isn’t football.
This season was Null and Void from the beginning. It never had any chance. Sheer recklessness attempting it.
It is extremely different to last season. Not the same at all. Clubs are being affected indiscriminately and disproportionately due to Covid, zero sporting integrity and no guarantee of sporting integrity going forward. Zero equal playing field for all clubs.
The ‘season’ must be abandoned and declared null and void regardless of petty financial claim repercussions. It’s the only correct option on the table.
It has never been a ‘season’.
Abandoned!
Would you say the same if Celtic were 20 points clear at the top? I think not
No. At least having a game to watch or listen to has been a welcome distraction from the madness of the past year. As Phil has said many times, the only threat to Celtic is Celtic themselves and so it has proved. Starting the season in the midst of a ‘pandemic’ with all its impositions and restrictions quite possibly conveyed an advantage that Celtic just haven’t taken advantage of. We’ve had three players between the stick when a little less haggling could have seen a real safe pair of hands and possibly much less of a gap at the top. There’s been complacency in the boardroom and on the pitch, conceding a late and hard to come by lead against Hibs the latest example of wastefulness. Meanwhile, regardless of the number of penalties awarded and questionable decisions in their favour, or the amount of time played against ten-man teams, Gerrard’s lot have made the most of the chances that have come their way so to call for null and void now sounds very bit as feeble and pathetic as it was when they were hoping to prevent us from a record equalling nine-in-a-row and quadruple treble.
Gerrard hasn’t turned into a great manager all of a sudden and their continued (over)spending hasn’t created a great team but they are a fortunate one. They’ve had one class performance this season, the first game against us, one where our own bhoys didn’t show up. Conversely, we turned in possibly our best performance of the season and the ten men who ended that game lost to an own-goal which I think sums up our season perfectly.
Rod Stewart done it before Bankier! He was doing business.
Surely Lawell is more responsible for our direction? We want a team before a profit whatever way you look at it. It’s all we ask.
How can we claim to be a club open to all with ex and current politicians on the board. No one is stopping them attending games, but should they be on the payroll? Which they are as directors. They are failed politicians lining their pockets at the expense of ordinary fans.
I remember that period soooo well . Very difficult and worrying time . Sadly the “SOME” of the newer generation never experienced it , didnt feel it . They get pissed off when we lose a game or 2 . Had the last few years way too good so I guess its all they know .
I believe it was actually John Keane who put in the initial funding to stave off oblivion!
JK had put money in the previous weeks to meet payroll.
i will never forget bankier treating we share holders like shit on his shoe
when a shareholder asked why we had a conservative lord on the board
Often thought we need to get failed politicians like Wilson, Reid and the Tory mp (whose name escapes me) off the board. You can either be a Celtic director or a politician. I do not believe you can be both.
John Reid a “failed politician”? What criteria have you used? He held at least 5 senior Ministerial posts. He was also a Celtic supporter of long standing.
He was also a war criminal.
Was he ever tried and found guilty of such charges?
Well said . John Reid is Celtic through and through. Was a very supportive Chairman< held our position at all times. He attended matches at his own peril. HAIL HAIL John Reid.