Tom Grant

Celtic Board – Past | Celtic Board | Celtic Takeover | About Celtic

Details

Name: Tom Grant
Role: Celtic Board Member, Shareholder, Celtic Park Stadium Director
Tenure: 1985-1994
Era: Biscuit Tin, Celtic Takeover, Sack the Board

Summary

1985–1994 Celtic Board member (ex-Biscuit Tin)

In the history of Celtic’s boardroom management, few other characters can be described as ridiculous as this man. Granted he was a Celtic man through and through, but as the saying goes: “with friends like this then who needs enemies?”.

Unfortunatley for Celtic, he was not just a simple employee but a member of the board pre-McCann (and then also for a short time thereafter). A member of the infamous Biscuit Tin board of the early 1990s, it was never understood where he stood. Was he with the ‘Rebels‘ (sic!) or with the ‘Families‘ (sic!)?

When Chris White along with Michael Kelly decided to oppose Brian Dempsey’s re-election onto the board, Tom Grant along with Farrell opposed the move which led to an EGM by Michael Kelly and Christopher White to depose them. Frantic dealing by both sides saw the then Celtic share price rise sharply to buy each their own way. All ended up a waste of time for the “Rebels” when Tom Grant ended up doing a deal with the families and saw the two of them remain on the board.

Not long after, the “family pact” was born with Michael Kelly, Christopher White, Kevin Kelly and Tom Grant signing a binding contract to have a block vote and not to vote against each other in order to push their way on the Cambuslang project. Self-preservation for all was really the primary order of the day. To everyone’s dismay, Tom Grant had seemed to jump ship after all the effort the “Rebels” had made. Stabbed in the back is how most of them must have felt, and definitely set the club back at least a few years in development at a time when real business acumen and experience was needed (hardly there from the inexperienced incumbents).

Anyhow, his tenure at Celtic from there on never got much better. Terry Cassidy stepping into Celtic to practically do their job as the Chief Executive was no master stroke by the old board, and just made the board look ever dafter when they had to ditch him at the end, but surely with the pact they were totally united behind each other. Actually no, one Sunday journalist Jim Traynor on STV announced that a certain board member had said to him that he did not believe that the new stadium (at Cambuslang) was going to be built. Didn’t take a genius to figure out who this was, and finally was revealed what we already knew, it was Tom Grant! The man was now comically frustrating his own board as well as the ‘Rebels‘, the former I’m sure now wishing they’d got rid of him as they first wanted, whilst the latter were likely just getting bemused with his behaviour.

If you think that I’m being unreasonable, then think of it like this, he was the stadium director who decided to put seats in the “Jungle” (the old terracing across from the main stand, the North Stand area now), in the mistaken belief that it made business sense in case they had to seat the whole stadium if they couldn’t move into Cambuslang in time. Well it wasn’t, as seating in the Jungle was a bit of joke if you ask many of who were there at the time. Putting seats into the Jungle was simple also, so there was no need to do as and when they did it. Well done Tom Grant! Just alienated and frustrated the support further just when you needed them most. He was given the title of Stadium Director (or such), frightening stuff. He was simply out of his depth.

Anyhow, the final showdown in 1993/94 (Celtic Takeover) provided our last piece of entertainment from Tom Grant as he again jumped ship to save Celtic/his own skin (delete as you find appropriate), and backed the ‘Rebels‘ in the final showdown that finally blew up the “families” and their pact. Tom Grant lasted a while longer, kept as a token thanks for finally backing the “Rebels”, but thankfully wasn’t kept for long. Laughable as much of it may seem but he can’t take any solace in that he finally did what was right as he could have done that years back by not jumping ship and simply staying put with the ‘Rebels‘. He helped to hinder and hold the club back for years and is part responsible for the near bankruptcy of our club.

No loss to see him go on a business front. We are sure he was a nice man personally (and has come over well in later interviews on Celtic media sites), but his time at Celtic is something that needs reminding and re-telling to all just so that it is never again repeated. It led to the near collapse of the club and we can’t forgive that.

However, he remained a faithful Celtic fan, and he was a regular at matches, and even assisted a number of online Celtic fans with information and details, which must be respected. Despite the incompetence during the time on the board, he has shown that not only is he deserving of respect as a person but also as a Celtic supporter too.

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Tom Grant

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