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The Scotsman 07/03/1994
The football club's financial crisis cannot be discussed until its chief executive takes his post, say Bank of Scotland sources
By Peter Woodifield BUSINESS EDITOR
COMPLAINTS by Fergus McCann that the Bank of Scotland should have called him earlier to sort out Celtic's financial crisis were rejected by the bank last night.
''I am sure that Mr McCann must have been misquoted,'' said Dr Roland Mitchell, the general manager of UK banking west, ''because I am equally sure he must appreciate that until he had an official position at Celtic, we could not possibly discuss Celtic's affairs with him or anyone else, other than the board.''
Mr McCann, the Scots-born Canadian businessman millionaire, who is set to become Celtic's chief executive, was widely quoted in Sunday newspapers as saying that the Bank of Scotland knew that he had had a multi-million pound financing rescue package in place since last November and that he and Brian Dempsey had been forced into a high-speed cash injection to save Celtic from going into receivership.
Senior Bank sources insisted that discussing Celtic's affairs with outsiders, while it was trading within its overdraft limit would have been similar to discussing a customer's overdraft with the next-door neighbour. It also emerged yesterday that it was Celtic's lack of home matches – just one in two months – that brought the crisis to a head, rather than any bank ultimatum.
The lack of cash coming through the turnstiles, and the need to pay wages and other bills, forced the club up against its overdraft limit, which the Bank of Scotland was not prepared to increase. Kevin Kelly, with three fellow directors, turned to Mr McCann and Mr Dempsey only when the bank made clear it would not honour any cheques that took the club over its overdraft limit.
''This did not catch us by surprise. The alarm bells had been ringing louder for some time,'' one bank insider said last night.
Various proposals to reduce the overdraft had been under discussion for some time, with the board apparently resisting pressure to sell more players.
It is understood that the confusion surrounding the alleged involvement of Gefinor, a Swiss merchant bank, in the proposed plans to build a stadium in Cambuslang had no bearing on the bank's actions.
Reports that the overdraft was as high as 7 million are now thought to be wide of the mark, and the actual figure is apparently considerably lower, though Celtic does have other debts.