| Celtic Slang |
Details
Reference to: Celtic fans who started to go to Celtic matches after the takeover (post-1994) v those who were attending before (Biscuit Tin era)
aka: Old v New fans
Started: Post 1994 (usage mostly fizzled out in late 2000’s)
Definition
One of the more unnecessary taunts that can be recalled is the back and forth slights bandied about during the late 1990s between some set of fans.
Post-McCann fans: Celtic fans who were not generally regulars prior to the Fergus McCann/Celtic Takeover in 1994. Really it’s mostly fans who first came to Celtic around the time of the return to Celtic Park in 1995.
The background to this is that back in the early days of the post-takeover period there was a huge rise in season ticket holders & attendances on the back of resurgent confidence & hope following the regeneration that McCann was implementing.
The problem for some was that many of these ‘new’ fans were apparently too impatient, didn’t understand football, here-by-day/gone-by-night fans, myopic, not ‘real’ fans,too many families/wummin/weans, not thru & thru, don’t know tunes, don’t sing along, don’t create any atmosphere etc. If anything, these ‘new’ fans were just easy targets for the old school and were something to just simply moan about. Could be quite heated as pre-McCann fans often seemed to patronise the post-McCann fans.
In fairness, it takes time for some new fans to get into the culture of a support, and the scale of new incoming regular fans was always going to be a shock to the system, but they are Celtic fans and have every right to be at the games.
Things were changing anyhow, due to the season-ticket boom, supporters clubs & buses had begun a certain decline. Previously you had to be a member of a supporters club to get away tickets as they were the old vehicle for away ticket distribution prior to the 1990s. No longer the case as you could now only get them via season tickets. This all impacted the Celtic matchday experience and ongoing culture, and some were a bit slow to come to terms with the changing environment.
The game as a whole was changing across the football world at that time: Sky TV coverage, rising prices, all seater stadia, the Champions League, foreign coaches, players and club owners and so on. It was quite a time for transition.
It’s always been the case that certain older fans like to hark on about how easy the youth have had it with Celtic, but it was especially with this pre-McCann generation as they compared their difficult supporting lives back in the 1990s under the old board to the new generation, as if the pre-McCann fans were like ‘Nam veterans or the like. Then again, some of the suffering by supporters on the terraces from those days was akin to a Tour of Duty.
Anyhow, the term mostly fizzed out and then died a death over the 2000s, but ironically was replaced as the post-McCann fans themselves became ‘Celtic Da’s‘ and turned their own attention against the new generation in the Green Brigade. So it all went full circle.
In some ways, the Pre-McCann/Post-McCann taunt between some supporters was no different to the later Celtic Da/Green Brigade banter. Mostly in humour, sometimes not by those with an exaggerated belief in their own self-importance. Guess it just provided some misplaced moral high ground to a few.
Anyhow, that’s life as a supporter for you.