Celtic require an emotional as well as financial investment
See Also: Celtic Finances
Sunday Herald, The, Aug 5, 2001 by Tom Shields
We are Celtic shareholders, faithful through and through, Over and over, we'll invest in you.
Preference, ordinary, you will find us there, Share price up, share price down, We don't really care.
In a busy week for Celtic, the details of the latest share issue were probably of less interest to fans than the signing of messrs Hartson, Sylla, and Guppy. The stock market dealings were certainly much further down the discussion agenda than the team's stunning performance against Manchester United.
As a Celtic shareholder, I reluctantly decided against a further investment in the club's equity. It was a simple choice: buy a further 500 shares for (pounds) 600 or follow the team to Amsterdam. Mr Heineken, the brown bars, and the prospect of watching the Hoops play Ajax prevailed.
Anyway, if I had bought the shares it would have been bad for Celtic. I'm living embodiment of the warning that the value of shares can go down as well as further down.
I bought my shares at 280p and now the going rate is 125p. The (pounds) 1,400 was an emotional, not a financial investment.
It was worth the money to see the back of Fergus McCann. The Bunnet was the saviour who could take the club no further. Fergus was no Celtic supporter, as he proved by orchestrating matters to avoid putting a penny of his vast windfall profits into a Parkhead youth academy.
The share issue brings a raft of new stakeholders, from Martin O'Neill to Eddie Jordan. O'Neill's act of faith of putting (pounds) 2m into the club is the most intriguing.
The Blessed Martin, as chairman Brian Quinn calls him, is Celtic FC at the moment. He is the architect of the new success and custodian of the new hope.
O'Neill put the Tim into optimism and his involvement at any level is to be welcomed. Celtic insist it is O'Neill's own (pounds) 2m that has gone on the line.
It is to be hoped that some sort of deal is in place to cover the O'Neill family's risk. It would be right to ensure the greatest Celtic manager since Jock Stein is remunerated appropriately with cash and status, in a way that was denied to the Big Man.
Dermot Desmond's increased holding from 20% to 25% is news to be greeted less readily. The wily Dub has certainly put his money on the line, just as McCann did all those dark years ago.
And it was Desmond who ended the shilly-shallying over Celtic's future by Alan MacDonald and others who already had set the club at the edge of the abyss by appointing the disastrous Dalglish-Barnes regime. He also is credited with halting the pursuit of Guus Hiddink as manager in favour of O'Neill.
With all due respect to Mr Hiddink, it is unlikely he would have achieved what O'Neill has. It's entirely possible that the Dutchman, had he been appointed, would have come and gone, leaving Celtic deeper in a spiral of failure and debt.
What is worrying is Desmond's recent pontification on Celtic potentially joining the English Premiership. He made the valid point that Celtic should not be restrained by borders and other bureaucratic boundaries. But he added the chilling words: "Nobody owns Celtic except the shareholders. We can move Celtic anywhere." You don't need a degree in conspiracy theory to envisage a scenario in which Celtic, having outgrown Scottish football, becomes an international club funded by TV and merchandising revenue.
The geographical location of the club would cease to matter to the businessmen. If most of the major shareholders live in the Republic of Ireland, Mr Desmond's "anywhere" could be Dublin as easily as Glasgow.
All of us small shareholders who invested a little cash but a lot of emotion in Glasgow Celtic would be powerless. There is a clear role here for the Celtic Trust, the body set up to represent individual shareholders. The Trust is a fledgling organisation, unrecognised by the club, which does not even reply to its letters.
This is in the best tradition of Celtic regimes who think the supporter's place is queueing in the ticket office or Celtic shop. But when the small shareholders band together, the board will be less likely to ignore pressure groups like the Celtic Trust.
More importantly, there is urgent European business to be seen to this week on the park. The good news for supporters, shareholders or not, is that O'Neill has shown the success rate of the Celtic team can go up as well as down.
Copyright 2001