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The Scotsman 05/03/1994
By Hugh Keevins FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT
A LONG DAY's journey into night appeared to bring three directors, Michael Kelly, Christopher White and David Smith, to the end of the road at Celtic Park and apparently installed Fergus McCann and Dominic Keane as the architects of the troubled club's new era.
It was Dempsey who made the most pertinent statement of the night when he was asked about the immediate aims of the new board.
''Don't forget,'' he said, ''the bank were ready to stop Celtic from signing cheques on Thursday. We have to go over the books and find out the exact financial state of this club before we do anything.''
Negotiations that began when the old guard arrived at the ground at 10am were still going on ten hours later with the details of the takeover at Celtic Park being notional.
The change that most supporters wanted to see, the removal of the three directors accused of mishandling the club's financial affairs, looked like being achieved, however, by virtue of McCann putting up the money to pay for their shares. McCann, it is understood, could be chief executive on the interim board which will hold its first meeting next week. There is no doubt, though, that he will emerge as the new figurehead at the club.
Keane, a banker by profession, is the brother of the Bermuda-based tax exile, Edmund, who was one of the five-man consortium whose bid to gain control of the club failed at an annual general meeting last November. Keane's financial expertise will, in the event of a deal being finalised, be brought to bear at the club who, 24 hours before his appointment, had been told they were in ''immediate and dire peril'' of going into receivership.
The new director's feeling for the club had him, on the last occasion we had met inside a football ground, incandescent with rage on the day Motherwell eliminated Celtic from the Scottish Cup at Fir Park in January. Keane will work to see that such days are not repeated in future.
The four directors who helped Keane and McCann realise their aims, Kevin Kelly, Tom Grant, Jimmy Farrell and Jack McGinn, look like retaining their places on the board after helping to engineer the downfall of the old order. What changes McCann ultimately has in mind remain to be seen but the Scots-born, Montreal-based millionaire has a hard-nosed, North American approach to business.
Brian Dempsey, the former director who was a central character in yesterday's dealings, maintained an avuncular approach throughout a day of lengthy and delicate negotiations, periodically emerging at the front door to inform waiting fans of how talks were progressing. Dempsey's future is also unclear. It is hard to imagine the man who masterminded the rescue package that saved the club from the ultimate embarrassment of foreclosure at the bank, and who has waited four years to play an active role at Celtic Park, having no practical part in the new era.
Lawyers, however, spent hours poring over the fine detail of the agreements that would effect historic change. Meanwhile, the directors, old and new, apparently dined on fish and chips.
Celtic's manager, Lou Macari, normally the most pragmatic of men, was sufficiently caught up in the day's doings to find himself unable to discuss this afternoon's match with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park. The manager cancelled his normal Friday press conference on the basis that there were ''other events taking precedence over the football''. It was a statement indicative of the way the new year has started at Celtic Park.
The day that people get back to discussing the dressing-room as opposed to the boardroom will be the day Celtic have regained an air of normality.