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Celtic: The Official History
Celtic is a club like no other. Its story is a unique one, of a football club founded to raise money to help alleviate poverty within the predominantly Irish immigrant community of Glasgow's East End. Yet, from its inception, Celtic has been a club open to all. From those humble and charitable origins, Celtic have gone on to become one of the most famous names in world football. In 1967, they became the first British club to win the European Cup, while domestically they have won, to date, 47 league titles, 36 Scottish Cups and 16 League Cups. The story of Celtic continues – of success on the field, backed by a strong organisation off it, and all underpinned by a commitment to remain true to the charitable roots of the club. This is just the latest chapter . . .
- GenresHistory
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 14, 2017
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About the author
Brian Wilson
4 booksBrian Wilson is a Scottish politician and journalist. He was the founder of the West Highland Free Press.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 26, 2022
Good overview of the history of Glasgow Celtic Football Club.
The early chapters are by far the best part of the book as they delve into how and why the football club formed - it's original charitable purposes in alleviating poverty in the East End of Glasgow, and giving the Irish Immigrant community - at that time enduring considerable institutional and societal discrimination - with some solance. The efforts of the founding members of the club, figures such Brother Walfrid, John Glass, John McGlaughlin...etc., in their selfless attempts to alleviate sisters and brothers from hardship, adversity, and despair, is truly remarkable and well ahead of their time. This alone should be seen as a source of pride for anyone who calls themselves a supporter of Glasgow Celtic.
What is also quite interesting is that the book covers the numerous internal conflicts within Celtic - for instance, how the name "Celtic" came about, and what it means (it's incredible how close we were to having a "Glasgow Hibernians" rather than what we have today); the mismanagement of the club by the nepotist "four families" that had controlled Celtic until Fergus McCann's takeover in the mid-1990's (essentially saving the club from being put out of business altogether!).
The book also takes the time to explain succinctly why there remains a sizeable intuition towards the Scottish Football Authorities, the Referees Commision, and the Sports Media in this country of having a "anti-Celtic" bias and a favouritability towards Rangers. While casually dismissed as mere "paranoia", there have been very real instances in the past that fuel these sentiments (the apparent lack of the news media holding Rangers to account for it's anti-catholic transfer policy being one of the main reasons, whilst anti-Irish/Catholic sectarianism unfortunately persists in our society - no matter how ill-founded many of the claims are, they are understandable in them being rooted in very real instances and events for more than a century).
The last few chapters following the McCann takeover - from the Martin O'Neil era, to Brendan Rodgers' invincibles - does feel rushed in contrast to what has come before, and amounts merely to a brief summary on key results in the seasons where Gordon Strachan (Peter Lawwell's constrains on transfer budgets the exception), Neil Lennon, Ronny Deila and Brendan Rodgers was the manager - information that can be gleamed from the annual "Green Wee Book".
3.5/5.
The early chapters are by far the best part of the book as they delve into how and why the football club formed - it's original charitable purposes in alleviating poverty in the East End of Glasgow, and giving the Irish Immigrant community - at that time enduring considerable institutional and societal discrimination - with some solance. The efforts of the founding members of the club, figures such Brother Walfrid, John Glass, John McGlaughlin...etc., in their selfless attempts to alleviate sisters and brothers from hardship, adversity, and despair, is truly remarkable and well ahead of their time. This alone should be seen as a source of pride for anyone who calls themselves a supporter of Glasgow Celtic.
What is also quite interesting is that the book covers the numerous internal conflicts within Celtic - for instance, how the name "Celtic" came about, and what it means (it's incredible how close we were to having a "Glasgow Hibernians" rather than what we have today); the mismanagement of the club by the nepotist "four families" that had controlled Celtic until Fergus McCann's takeover in the mid-1990's (essentially saving the club from being put out of business altogether!).
The book also takes the time to explain succinctly why there remains a sizeable intuition towards the Scottish Football Authorities, the Referees Commision, and the Sports Media in this country of having a "anti-Celtic" bias and a favouritability towards Rangers. While casually dismissed as mere "paranoia", there have been very real instances in the past that fuel these sentiments (the apparent lack of the news media holding Rangers to account for it's anti-catholic transfer policy being one of the main reasons, whilst anti-Irish/Catholic sectarianism unfortunately persists in our society - no matter how ill-founded many of the claims are, they are understandable in them being rooted in very real instances and events for more than a century).
The last few chapters following the McCann takeover - from the Martin O'Neil era, to Brendan Rodgers' invincibles - does feel rushed in contrast to what has come before, and amounts merely to a brief summary on key results in the seasons where Gordon Strachan (Peter Lawwell's constrains on transfer budgets the exception), Neil Lennon, Ronny Deila and Brendan Rodgers was the manager - information that can be gleamed from the annual "Green Wee Book".
3.5/5.
March 23, 2023
What an amazing book. I have loved reading this, such an incredible and comprehensive book of the history of Celtic Football Club from its beginnings in 1888 until 2017. Thank you so much Brian Wilson for educating me so much in Celtic’s rich history.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews