Celtic Board – Past | Celtic Board | Celtic Takeover | About Celtic
Details
Name: Dr Michael Kelly
Ref: Celtic Executive Director, part of last Biscuit Tin Board during the Celtic Takeover
Dates: 1990-1994
Summary
(Dr) Michael Kelly has been both a Scottish politician and businessman. He held the position of Lord Provost from 1980 to 1984, and was Lord Rector of Glasgow University from 1983 to 1987.
A member of one of the Biscuit Tin families that had controlled Celtic since around its foundation. He sat on the club’s board of directors until 1994, when the club reached the verge of administration and the much-criticised old regime was ousted by Fergus McCann’s takeover.
Fergus McCann had said he hoped to raise around £10m from a share issue. Dr Michael Kelly advised fans to invest in the National Lottery rather than buy Celtic shares on the basis that you stood a better chance of getting a return. And in that one statement he perfectly underlined the reason the support had to remove him and his colleagues in the first place.
He was so well proven wrong on that last point thankfully, and in probably the only concession he has ever made publicly he admitted he got it wrong with the stadium being able to be rebuilt as per Fergus McCann’s plans.
Overview
What’s left to be said of Michael Kelly? Previously a successful Lord Provost of Glasgow (mayoral figurehead of the city council), where he helped to rejuvenate the image of the city with his very successful (and much aped) “Glasgow’s Miles Better” campaign. His coming on board to Celtic was seen as a positive, but it was to be the polar opposite.
Brought on board alongside property developer Brian Dempsey, he shortly ousted the latter in a bitter/public coup which can be taken as the start of the old “Sack the Board” battles. With the media in favour of Dempsey, the board was to have an upward battle from then on.
Problem was that Michael Kelly was not helping progress at the club. Fighting for the status quo and hiding behind myths about the current set-up being the traditions of the club, which was erroneous, was hindering development of the business at a time when football was entering a financial revolution. It was as if Michael Kelly, despite having a PhD in Economics, didn’t seem to understand any of this. Responsible for the PR side, he was prone to rubbing up many on the wrong side and creating opponents amongst the Celtic support when bridges needed being built. He had quickly become an obstacle to change.
Celtic were floundering in financial matters, and practically all commercial & investment ventures were failing or not commanding the confidence needed to help them succeed. For example, the new stadium plans, the Celtic family voucher card, the poorly marketed Celtic retail stores and the loss of shirt sponsors one season too.
Heavily lampooned and satirised in the club fanzines (Not the View and Once a Tim), Michael Kelly’s public image was forever tarnished, and for little other reason this was good enough reason for his own sake to step down. There is no denying that much criticism was not justified or well informed, and to be fair to Michael Kelly the media in general (and especially the Sport journalists) can hardly be taken as the best arbiters of right and wrong, especially on business matters. An exception must be made for the fanzines as they are the products of the paying punters of the club, and generally they are reflecting the voices from the terraces (note: this was an era before websites and forums).
Battle after battle, Michael Kelly was beleaguered yet kept going on, he was very obstinate. He was seen by most as the actual acting leader & the embodiment of the group of shareholders who signed a contractual pact to stick together. This led to numerous disasters (e.g. Cambuslang stadium project, hiring of Terry Cassidy as Chief Executive, worsening media PR for Celtic etc).
One point that is a complete myth is that the board was completely silent through much of the whole debacle sticking their heads in the sand, but that was due mainly to Michael Kelly whilst it was generally true for the rest of them. He appeared on radio shows and did interviews for newspapers, most of the time admittedly coming out negatively. In one interview, he retorted as a reply to journalist Hugh Keevins’ questioning: “Do you beat your wife?“. At one time that might have been thought of as making a general point (a rhetorical question), but thankfully times have changed and it’s not socially acceptable anymore, but sadly Michael Kelly refused to realise this point (the connotations to the term are quite offensive). For a man involved in PR, surely he should have recognised that. He didn’t and it reflected very poorly on him.
At the time, on Monday nights, football commentator Archie MacPherson used to do a great panel sporting program called “Sport in Question” (before the rest copied and ruined the format), and one program was devoted to the Celtic shambles with Michael Kelly and Chairman Kevin Kelly on the show. Truth is that it was a losing battle for the Kellys as actions speak louder than words, but anything that Michael Kelly could have done to alleviate the tensions was totally undone when Kevin Kelly laughably stated on the show that “nobody has Celtic’s interest at heart more than I do” etc and made us all cringe. His cousin was famous for making remarks that embarrassed everyone. In any case, Michael Kelly was as over-defensive as ever and any hope that they were to reach out to the support evaporated and the support was left with more patronising statements by Michael Kelly.
Some episodes with Michael Kelly were comical as well. In the final game to be played in front of ‘The Jungle’ terracing, the club invited fans to dress up for the occasion in fancy dress costumes. There were the usual stuff from the fans, but unknown to the support that one person lurking amongst the support in a tiger costume was Michael Kelly! If he was outed on the terraces it could have been trouble.
He pompously criticised in his book (Paradise Lost p.148-149) a cheer from some in the Celtic support in the stand he was in when he heard them celebrate a defeat for the Scotland rugby side v England (it was at some time in the early 1990s). It was more to wind up the opposing Raith Rovers fans on the day. In his own inimitable bumptious manner, highlighting his own misplaced superiority complex, he commented:
“And these are the guys who are passing judgement on me?”
Paranoia set in, exemplified when at one match in the corporate area one man went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder and said something innocuous, but then Michael Kelly went into overdrive and started calling for police. In fairness, it was a stressful time and anything could trigger off rage to anyone in such circumstances. However, it was also clear to all that he was increasingly unfit to make decisions in this state yet he was the most central person on the board at the time.
As things went on, it was obvious to all that it had to come to an end, but infuriatingly it went down to the wire. The club was a few moments from a humiliating administration, and attempts to pull strings at the last minute did little for Michael Kelly’s reputation, coming over again as arrogant and deluded (e.g. the old board announced belatedly they were finally going to do a public share issue). The takeover saw him leave immediately albeit paid handsomely for his shares to the chagrin of Fergus McCann, an ignominious end for the former Lord Provost Michael Kelly.
The irony is that a man who helped to engineer some much needed change whilst in the archaic world of Glasgow politics, and was then brought in to help reshape Celtic, became possibly the staunchest conservative of the lot at Celtic. Was he deluded in the extreme, possibly too intelligent for anyone else to understand him, or was it simply an attack of hubris as happens to many others in positions of power?
Fellow board member but arch-opponent James Farrell delivered a very biting warning on Michael Kelly’s position:
“All that I have done, as I have said in this statement is resisted Michael Kelly, because he is the man who in my view should be ejected from this board. He [Michael Kelly] has caused unbelievable disruption. He has been paid a handsome salary, admittedly under contract for public relations, and in my view the public relations of this football club in the past 18 months or two years have never been lower. If I am voted off today, those directors who are with him unless he changes his tune completely, will find him a most uneasy bedfellow, and they will not rest in their beds at night for imagining what he is up to.”
Whatever the case, his time at Celtic was marked by shoddy club management, poor public relations (fuelled by a Rangers’ biased media) and parochialism, all elements that Michael Kelly should have had experience in dealing with from this time as Glasgow’s Lord Provost. A sad experience for both the club and himself, but few other relationships for the club with people have led to as grave a situation as panned out during Michael Kelly’s tenure.
Since his departure he has been a newspaper columnist (ironically) where he has penned some cringing rubbish, written up a book on the London Underground and moved back to sort out his business life. Notably, he wrote a very biased but still surprisingly interesting book on the whole debacle titled “Paradise Lost”, and if you want to see how he really thinks then this is as close as you will ever get. Saying that, he managed to get his forecasts in his book on McCann’s regime wrong.
Post-Script
In 2011, STV produced a “Football Years” nostalgia show on 1994 which not surprisingly focused heavily on the Celtic Takeover. Michael Kelly was involved in the show in a post-show interview program, and despite now being clean shaven and far older, he was definitely not far wiser or mellower. He spent the whole time slating others, unwilling to admit his own mistakes, and disturbingly in denial of the successes under Fergus McCann. His continued bitterness was there for all to see and it was all masked in delusion.
His regurgitating of the old “traditions” lines was just a farce. He claimed “The Herald” newspaper had a campaign against him, groups had conspired against them, poor team results had brought the support against them, kept on going on about that Fergus bought the shares off him at the very end for £300 each, and simply had a go at everyone going (including repeating unnecessary pot-shots at Paul McStay). It was a rambling nonsense, and it seems that he will never accept what the rest could see in front of us comparing back then to what we can see now.
Time should heal or at least bury the past. Celtic have achieved much since his departure, for which we are thankful for. It would be best for Michael Kelly to now accept the successes of the club since his departure or better still just to move on quietly and concentrate on something more positive if he has nothing constructive left to say on anything related to Celtic & Scottish football.
Quotes
“When Cassidy eventually left, Celtic put in Michael Kelly to handle the club’s Press Relations department and things didn’t get any better. It all became a bit intense and it got to the stage that you had to continually look over your shoulder. So much for team harmony and pulling together! Yes it was quite an experience managing Celtic Football Club!”
Ex-Celtic manager Liam Brady (1998)
Book Review
Links
KDS
Articles
Kelly interview stirs Celtic pot By Staff Reporter
19/08/1999
Scottish Soccer CELTIC’S official club magazine, the Celtic View, was thrown into a storm of controversy yesterday when its main feature was an interview with former director Michael Kelly. Kelly, the nephew of former Chairman Sir Bob Kelly, was one of seven deposed directors in 4 March 1994 when Fergus McCann swept to power at Parkhead and is now seen as a villain by Celtic fans the world over.
The club, it would appear, afforded him the opportunity to put the past behind him and make some attempt to clear his conscience he refused. Instead he stirred a new row by defending former Rangers’ Vice-Chairman Donald Findlay and insisted that “just because you sing a sectarian song that doesn’t make you a bigot”.
Telephone lines to the popular Press in Glasgow were bombarded yesterday by irate supporters, outraged that the club had given space to the likes of Kelly who took the Celtic to within hours of bankruptcy by refusing to sell-out to people who were willing to invest for the future. But Kelly was unrepentant for what the Celtic fans believe as his sins against their club. He said; “I think that it is important that wounds do heal now and there were some pretty open wounds on both sides. “All I did when I left was write my book (Paradise Lost) and I was standing for the traditions of Celtic and I think that it has continued within what we all know was a unique club.”
There was a touch of irony to see Kelly pictured in the Directors’ Box at the new Celtic Park a stadium he said would never be in place. In his book of 1994 he said; “The decision has been taken to allow Celtic Park to be rebuilt as a 60,000 all-seated stadium….I am prepared to state categorically that this will never be finished.” Kelly attacked the media who certainly stirred the pot as the Celts for Change groups were actively plotting his and his family’s fall from grace six years ago.
Ironically, it is the same media who he depends on nowadays to earn a living, a bit like former manager Jock Brown who went on to have a go at the Press and then re-join them. And not only did Kelly defend Findlay to the annoyance of the Celtic supporters, he also defended Brown. “It was quite appalling how Jock Brown was treated. He was absolutely ideal for the job, but basically because he came from a media background, they had a great problem. “That’s the nature of the media now. They personalise and attack a person and they are so powerful you really just have to bow to it, but I never took it personally and I coped fine.”Water off a duck’s back is as good a way as any to describe the former Lord Provost of Glasgow’s feelings about anything in life the man appears completely un-insultable.
A clever marketing ploy also on behalf of Celtic who not only offered Kelly an olive branch of sorts with this platform to air his views but, at the same time, they have lost the ‘Pravda’ mantle their publication has held for so long
1993-05-15: Celtic 2-0 Dundee, Premier Division, Click for Match page
For one match, people were asked to come in fancy dress if they wanted – a parrot won the prize. Michael Kelly was amongst the supporters dressed as a tiger! Luckily he never took off his costume head else he might have got into a spot of bother!
Celtic, in March 1994, were not the financial basket case that has been made out.
Michael Kelly on Fergus McCann
Mar 2014
The Herald
The bottom line is that canny, dime-conscious Fergus McCann paid me £300 per share for my holding in the club. He did so, because, despite all the hot air surrounding Celtic’s plight, it was obvious the club had significant assets that could be exploited to make considerable amounts of money. And McCann did just that, walking away, a few years later, with £35m generated by the supporters.
However, he failed to fulfil one of his major promises to those supporters: that the club would never again be run by a cabal. In fact, the club today is under the control of a single large shareholder over whom the fans who were persuaded to buy shares can exercise no effective constraint. McCann could have avoided that if, on departure, he had gifted his shareholding to the other shareholder supporters.
For all the fuss about a bungling board, it was not the old regime’s inability to run Celtic as a business that irked the fans. It was the lack of performance on the field that caused the unrest. Celtic in the late 1980s had to contend with a Rangers team which, though cowboy-built on borrowed sand, proved too strong an outfit for Celtic on the field. The very fans who now laugh at the demise of our rivals were the same people who wanted Celtic to follow the same road.
The discontent was exploited by a group who saw the chance to profit from the situation. Their plan was to drive down the value of the club by a campaign, which included a boycott, to create even more antipathy towards the directors. This scared the Bank of Scotland into stepping in, forcing the shareholders to sell despite the fact the club’s own plans for recapitalisation were only six weeks from fruition.
It is no surprise, looking back, that the bank Celtic had used for 106 years behaved in such an immoral and cowardly fashion. A few years later, they raped the whole of the British economy in the same way.
So the fans got their wish. Celtic would be run as a business. However, they confused that with success on the field. McCann delivered one but not the other. He presided over a series of results that represented all-time lows in Celtic history. There were many embarrassing defeats. But one result stands out: Celtic losing to Raith Rovers in the League Cup final. It was the first time Celtic had lost in the cup to a club from a lower division. Sadly, that result has been repeated against a series of minor teams until the present day. So poor was McCann’s record that he left Celtic Park not only with a bulging bank balance, but with the boos of the fans ringing in his ears. The club had been re-financed, the stadium transformed, yet the fans’ major aspiration had been left unfulfilled.
Since McCann left, thanks to a more balanced approach, trophies have been won, and prestigious results have been recorded in Europe. Indeed, for the level of its revenues, Celtic could be said to have outperformed every other club in Britain.
However, what has kept the fans in raptures is the slow, lingering death of Rangers. The outcomes of the battles between the two have always been the yardstick. Now Celtic have won the war. In my view, it is a mistake to continue celebrating because it was that competition that kept Scottish football alive. The lack of it has already led Celtic to sell marketable players. It is satisfying that the league will still be won but if Rangers were still in contention would Celtic fans be tolerating the level of performance seen this year?
The dilemma facing the owner of Celtic – though a millionaire, he is still not wealthy enough to kiss goodbye to the kind of money ploughed into Chelsea or Manchester City – is whether success in Scotland alone will in the long run be enough to retain the fan base. As football is now structured, the significant funds needed to make Celtic competitive in Europe could never be recovered through trading. Such an investment requires an act of heroic charity.
Celtic’s only hope of being in a position to repeat the glories of 1967 is to gain entry to England’s Premier League. Revenues would be dramatically enhanced. More importantly, though, money could be risked on additional annual investment in players. There are billionaires interested in the prestige – not available in Scotland – that comes from owning a top English club. The fact that Celtic in England could always be sold on would embolden the current owner.
Yet a move to England is almost inconceivable as things stand. Too many English clubs have a vested interest in keeping Celtic out. And if Scotland were to vote Yes in September, even the dream would vanish; England would not admit a foreign club to its league. The logic is unavoidable: the existing conservative financial policy dictating that any footballing aspirations are limited is correct.
That is the long-term outcome of McCann’s intervention. Had the club not been attacked so viciously all those years ago and instead been allowed to pursue its own plans, would things today be materially different? I doubt it.
A retort to Michael Kelly’s article above from TheCelticWiki (by joebloggscity)
1) “Fergus McCann paid me £300 per share for my holding in the club. He did so, because, despite all the hot air surrounding Celtic’s plight, it was obvious the club had significant assets”
The money was paid as it was a case of paying for the intangible assets (i.e. the club name copyrights etc), getting a clean quick exit for the old directors, avoid potential road to administration and simply a way to get them to buy and so sign contracts to limit what they could do or say (all exit contracts usually have such covenants).
2) “failed to fulfil one of his major promises to those supporters: that the club would never again be run by a cabal”
Good to see he finally admits the club was run by a clique, but when was anyone stating that the club was going to be run as some big socialist fan-run club? It was to get greater fan involvement (i.e. the share issue), proper businessmen in (e.g. Demond & McCann), and create a functioning environment that allowed for change against the cronyism (e.g. publicly floated shares). The club is also more transparent than ever, and entries/exits of investors & staff have been less dramatic and more efficiently handled than ever under the old board. Any change in the old days led to public embarrassment with the mismanaged dramas it entailed.
3) “it was not the old regime’s inability to run Celtic as a business that irked the fans. It was the lack of performance on the field that caused the unrest.”
Nonsense. The results didn’t help, but then why did NTV fanzine begin in the centenary season? We had just lost the league, but it was before the “Sack The Board” days. There was already strong antagonism against the mismanagement of the board. The poor results were an effect of the old board’s inability, not the other way around.
4) “the bank Celtic had used for 106 years behaved in such an immoral and cowardly fashion”
Actually Michael, the bank had allowed the old board to hang on in there for far far longer with a more generous financial overdraft than should have been allowed.
5) “[McCann] presided over a series of results that represented all-time lows in Celtic history.”
Actually not true. The lows in the early 1990’s were far worse, and the Raith Rovers final in 1994 was not the fault of McCann, too early in his reign. Granted McCann’s biggest failing was first team managers, but under Kelly there was Brady, Macari and a declining McNeil. So McCann is way ahead of him.
6) “Since McCann left, thanks to a more balanced approach, trophies have been won, and prestigious results have been recorded in Europe”
All due to the foundations that McCann left behind and put in place. McCann is a cause of the success.
7) “Had the club not been attacked so viciously all those years ago and instead been allowed to pursue its own plans, would things today be materially different?”
Actually Michael the club would have died in the same way that OldCo died. As Rangers found to their cost, nobody is immune to financial excess, and you will have to pay the price. Under McCann, he did all that was correct and put it into place. The weak state of the environment is down to UEFA and FIFA, not Celtic. Under the current circumstances the club is doing fine. Under the old board, the club was floundering, and mismanaged the opportunity to build when the English league were weak and the TV money was beginning to arrive into the game. We were scrambling to buy Willie Falconer and swapping Payton for Biggins. We’ve come a long way.
I could say more but that’s enough.
