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The Scotsman 03/03/1994
By Alan Dron and Iain Duff
CONFUSION continued to surround the finances for Celtic FC's planned stadium at Cambuslang last night, 24 hours after reports that the merchant bank said to be backing the scheme had denied all knowledge of it. A spokesman for Stadivarious, the Oxford company arranging finance for the 50 million project, cast doubt on the accuracy of newspaper reports which gave the story its latest twist, saying the deal was still on.
The merchant bank Gefinor, of Geneva, could not be contacted.
Celtic also planned to comment on the affair yesterday. As the day wore on, however, a spokesman first said that the club's statement would be delayed, then that it would not be issued until today. Club sources insisted that the money was in place with Stadivarious, subject to conditions.
Yesterday's developments followed a newspaper report that Gefinor, said last week to be providing the cornerstone 20 million for the project, had denied all knowledge of the deal. Celtic sources said that one possible area for confusion was that Gefinor had never had any direct contact with the club, but only with Stadivarious. That would explain the comment by a Gefinor executive committee member, Edward Armaly, that he had had no dealings with Parkhead. Mr Armaly was in talks with Patrick Nally, of Stadivarious, in New York on Tuesday. Late yesterday, a spokesman for Stadivarious said that the talks had been ''only one of a whole series of meetings'' between the two organisations and had not been triggered by the reports of the lack of finance. There had been ''nothing dramatic'' about the meeting. ''As far as I'm concerned, nothing has changed from what [Celtic vice-chairman] David Smith said on Friday.''
The spokesman was asked how he explained the extensive quoted remarks in an evening newspaper from Mr Armaly. In those the latter said he had not proceeded with an agreement with Stadivarious on funding for Celtic's stadium in spite of initial contacts some months ago. The spokesman said: ''I can't speak for Gefinor, but … I have a question mark over the accuracy of those quotes.
''It requires an understanding of the mechanics of the transaction, which were explained last Friday. It's very easy, I suspect, to take the mechanics of that transaction out of context, and that, I suspect, is what the Evening Times has done.''
It was quite accurate and hardly surprising for Mr Armaly to say he had had no dealings with Celtic. All the banker's negotiations had been with Stadivarious, not the club, he added.
A Gefinor spokesman in Switzerland was reported last night to have repeated that no funding for Cambuslang was in place. David Smith, Celtic's deputy chairman and the driving force behind the Cambuslang plan, was not at the club or his London offices yesterday.
The turmoil in the Celtic boardroom dates back to 1990. Steps were taken then to remove Brian Dempsey from the board after his proposals to move Celtic to Robroyston in Glasgow. The split has never closed. There has been increasing acrimony as board proposals to build a stadium at Cambuslang have hit snags and the club's financial position has deteriorated. Mr Dempsey was voted off the board after six months.
Eighteen months later, in March 1992, he was backing a plan by a Scottish-Canadian businessman, Fergus McCann, to buy a say in the running of the club. Details of that were revealed by Mr McCann in March 1992 on the eve of an extraordinary general meeting. It was called to try to remove the directors James Farrell and Tom Grant from the board. They were considered too outspoken by colleagues. In a letter to shareholders, Mr Farrell criticised the Cambuslang proposal. It could ''lead to the possible liquidation of Celtic''. Mr Farrell and Mr Grant kept their seats on the board but a new appointment was ratified, David Smith as vice-chairman.
In May 1993, Glasgow District Council granted outline planning permission for the 50 million stadium at Cambuslang.
Mr McCann arrived in Scotland to attend the club's annual meeting in October and call for an extraordinary meeting to push his plan through. At the annual meeting, after an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Mr McCann from speaking or voting, the directors agreed to meet him to decide what was best for the club. It was revealed that five directors had signed a pact, Celtic Nominees, agreeing not to act independently of each other: they are Michael Kelly, Kevin Kelly, David Smith, Tom Grant and Christopher White.
The 24 hours before the annual meeting saw the resignation of the club's manager, Liam Brady, followed by the resignation of his assistant, Joe Jordan.
In November, Mr McCann withdrew his plan after he failed in a Court of Session move to disfranchise the five directors who had signed the pact.
In January, the new Celtic manager, Lou Macari, set up a meeting between angry supporters and the directors to try to restore support for the team.
At the end of the month, another group, backed by Gerald Weisfeld, made its move on the club. Its bid was rejected.
Last Friday, the Celtic board made the triumphant announcement that 20 million was in place to move to Cambuslang … followed by bank denials that they knew anything about the deal. And the fans got a new board and the board got a new stadium and everyone lived happily ever after …