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The Scotsman 05/03/1994
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IT WILL not be only supporters of Celtic Football Club who are relieved that it has been pulled back from the brink of oblivion. Had such a fate overtaken it, the repercussions on Scottish soccer and, through a broader focus, Scottish culture would have been serious.
Founded just over a century ago – its centenary season in 1988 was its last successful one on the field and in the profit and loss account – the club's initial motives were not confined to sporting endeavour. It had a social objective, too, seeing itself as a means of providing charitable aid to the mainly Catholic poor of Glasgow's east end. In short, it was from the beginning the ''people's club.'' And it was principally because those who ran it forgot the responsibilities that that involved, and allowed their link with the organisation's supporters to atrophy, that it fell upon hard times. Their neglect, which all can see now, proved almost fatal.
There were, of course, other reasons for the speedy decline. If football these days is big business then Celtic's directors were out of place. In recent years, they have tended to follow the initiatives of their great rivals, Glasgow Rangers, in the marketing field. Failing to make substantial financial returns from an organisation that could rely on the undying support of a significant proportion of Scotland's population took a talent that would have struggled to make a going concern of a corner shop. That the club's name is international was not seen as an opportunity to be exploited; it was as if the families who directed its fortunes could not see the potential of the vast family that, though it lay beyond Scotland, always thought of Parkhead as Paradise.
In some ways it is appropriate that it was from among that huge fraternity that the successful rescue bid was launched. No-one, especially perhaps the club's supporters, should underestimate the size of the task ahead. Imagination and discipline will be needed as much in the boardroom as on the field of play. Through their display of dogged determination over the past few months, Fergus McCann and his associates have shown they have the character and the strength to overcome the club's difficulties. And they have the financial resources, too. They know, moreover, that there are thousands of dedicated supporters, who have been willing them to victory over the old regime, anxious to help.
On the playing side they have a young manager and a team who, given the stable environment (and a new player or two) that the reconstructed, McCann-led board can furnish, could bring sunshine back to Paradise once more. There ought to be no complaints about that.