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Celtic > History
Celtic FC: A History
The history of Celtic Football Club is quite unique in the realms of association football in that it was conceived out of wish to raise money for charitable purposes.
The club was formed by a group of Irish/Scots led by a Mayo-born priest called Brother Walfrid who - taking a leaf out of the book of his co-religionists in Edinburgh who had some five years earlier had formed the Hibernians club - was instrumental in seeing that the club was formally constituted in St. Mary's Church Hall in East Rose Street (now Forbes Street) in Calton.
The objectives of the founding fathers of the club were simple - to alleviate the chronic poverty which existed in the parishes which proliferated the east end of Glasgow in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries.
The newly-established club was an immediate hit with the burgeoning Irish immigrant population on the west of Scotland and when it began to get the better of the already well-established Rangers FC, it's popularity soared even more.
Rangers - being the favoured club of the indigenous west of Scotland population - immediately became the antithesis of the Celtic following and the very first meeting of the two clubs in a 'friendly' at Celtic Park on May 28th, 1888, drew a record crowd for a soccer match. The massive receipts were wisely used to fund and develop a network of soup kitchens in the slum areas of Glasgow. The game was won 5-2 by the home side.
Celtic F.C quickly caught the imagination of the football-mad city and soon its support mushroomed in every part of Glasgow and its surrounds. In this respect, its rivalry with Rangers was one of its most potent attractions with each club benefiting from the passion and pride each of their respective supports had in their favourite teams.
Celtic were on the hunt for silverware in only the second year of their history when, in 1889, they reached the final of the Scottish Cup only to lose out by the odd goal in three to the highly-experienced men of Third Lanark. Still, the green and whites rebounded from this defeat to capture their first ever trophy, later in the year, when they mastered Cowlairs to lift the North-Eastern Cup.
With a bevy of young and up-and-coming stars joining Celtic's ranks, the pride of east Glasgow continued to knock on the door of the blue riband competitions and in 1892, the Celts won the Scottish Cup for the very first time by defeating Queens Park 5-2 in the final at Ibrox Park. The club was later to mark this breakthrough by moving to Kerrydale Street and its present address.
With its reputation now extending right throughout Scotland, Celtic were beginning to attract some of the best young talent in Scotland and, consequently, it came as no surprise when the club won its first league title in 1893.
By now, association football was drawing enormous support from the masses and the commercial nature of the game was all-consuming. Gate receipts rose year on year and the top players suddenly found themselves becoming household names. In 1897, Celtic's executive committee took the predictable decision to turn the club into a private limited liability company with the legendary Willie Maley assuming the reins of Secretary/Manager.
Although other clubs, - Rangers in particular - worked hard to stifle Celtic's progress, the green and whites continued to develop their fan base and their sphere of influence in the west of Scotland and further afield.
The club's fast flowing, end to end football was both successful and attractive and when the club won the league championship for six successive seasons, 1905-10, the club enjoyed unparalleled popularity among religionists across the sectarian divide.
However, Celtic's success did heighten sectarian tension. The unprecedented league and championship double achieved by the club in 1907 did result in mini-riots breaking out in parts of Glasgow. Celtic's repeat win the following year also only served to add further salt into the wounds of the club's detractors.
Further glory was garnered in spectacular style when Celtic won a four-in-arow of league championships between 1914-17. Sadly, that was as good as it got for the Celts for the next two decades as their star plummeted alarmingly.
Indeed, it wasn't until 1937 that Celtic recovered some of their hitherto pristine image. A Scottish Cup final win that year over Aberdeen before a record crowd of 146,433 heralded the beginning of a mini-renaissance of fortunes for the Glasgow giants.
Two years after getting back in among the silverware, Celtic secured a major scalp by beating a highly vaunted Everton team 1-0 at Ibrox in the Empire Exhibition Trophy final. A year later, team-boss Jimmy McStay would be replaced by former star player and ex-captain Jimmy McGrory.
Celtic once again hit lean times as the forties came and went with little joy coming the way of the Parkhead faithful.
The rejuvenation of Celtic Football Club didn't swing into action until 1953 when the hoops beat Hibernian 2-0 in the Coronation Cup final - a competition held between invited teams from Scotland and England. The final attracted a 117,000 bumper crowd.
Celtic continued to stay among the peleton of the Scottish game but it wasn't until three years later that they achieved their next major milestone in the history of the club when the League Cup was scooped for the first time - after a decade of near-misses.
The following year saw Celtic record one of its most thrilling and memorable victories over arch rivals Rangers. In a match which has since been immortalised in song and verse, the Celts hammered the Ibrox men 7-1 in the League Cup final.
By the early sixties, Celtic were looking towards Europe and in their first major assault on the bigger prizes, the green and whites reached the semi-final of the European Winners' Cup only to lose out to MTK Bucharest.
1965 witnessed arguably the most crucial and noteworthy appointment to the managerial staff at Celtic Park when former crowd favourite Jock Stein was appointed as manager of the club in March of that year. A late header by Billy McNeil in the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline months later handed the new boss a dream start.
The Stein bandwagon continued on from there with a first league championship title win in 12 seasons in 1966. The following year has been deemed as Celtic's finest as the club won every competition it entered, including the European Cup when Inter Milan were beaten 2-1 in Lisbon, thus becoming the first British club to achieve that honour.
League titles were retained year on year with the famous nine in a row being achieved from 1966 to '74. In between the club reached the European Cup final again, this time in 1970 but a 1-2 defeat to Wim Jansen's Feyenoord in Milan soured things somewhat.
Jock Stein's successor, Billy McNeill got off to a brillant start as manager when, in his first season, he guided the club to the '78 league title with a 4-2 win over Rangers in the club's final match securing the crown in dramatic style.
There was drama aplenty again in 1986 when Celtic pipped Hearts on the last day of the campaign on goal difference. Celtic sealed the issue with a 5-0 win over St. Mirren at Love Street while Hearts lost to Dundee.
Centenary year in 1988 saw the club win its first 'double' in 11 years, making it 35 league titles and 28 Scottish Cup successes in total.
1991 saw Celtic break with tradition as Irishman Liam Brady is appointed as manager - the first person not to have played with the club to have been made boss. However, Brady's tenure was to be a wholly unsuccessful one.
Three years later, Celtic F.C. found itself in financial turmoil. Canadian-based supporter Fergus McCann steps in to save the club from ruination and in the process ousts a board of directors which included members with long family connections with Celtic. The Save our Celts campaign run by supporters was thought to have played a big part in changing the face of the club at that time.
Later in 1994, the club is reconstituted as a plc, a decision which is followed up by the most successful share-issue in the history of British football with 10,000 fans taking up options and contributing £14m in total.
Part of Fergus McCann's five year plan is the reconstruction of Celtic Park and, thus, Celtic proceed to play their 'home' matches at Hampden Park. The exile ends in 1995 with the winning of the club's 30th Scottish Cup triumph courtesy of a 1-0 win over Airdrie.
In 1997 Feyenoord old boy Wim Jansen replaces the luckless Tommy Burns as manager and in the fully reconstructed, 60,800 capacity Celtic Park, brings back the League Cup trophy for the first time in 15 years with victory over Dundee United at Ibrox Park.
The following year, the Dutchman steers Celtic to the league title - their first since 1988. The win prevents Rangers from winning an unprecedented ten-in-a-row of league titles.
The following year Josef Venglos takes over as manager. Meanwhile, Fergus McCann takes his leave as he concludes his five year stint at the club. Allan McDonald succeeds him as chief executive.
Venglos is unlucky but ultimately unsuccessful and his retirement is swiftly followed by the shock appointment of John Barnes - installed at the same time as former team-mate Kenny Dalglish holds the position of director of football operations.
The Barnes/Dalglish axis works well initially but a disastrous 1-3 defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup brings the honeymoon to an inglorious end. Celtic proceed to end up as runners-up to Rangers in the league race by a record 21 points margin. Even a League Cup win over Aberdeen fails to lift the doom and gloom which engulfs the club.
During the summer of 2000, Leicester manager and Derry native Martin O'Neill is appointed as manager. He quickly ingratiates himself with the Celtic support by steering his charges to a 6-2 win over Rangers in the league on August 27th on the way to a remarkable treble of League, Scottish FA Cup and League Cup.
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