The Celtic Underground The Celtic Underground

French Farce
Another tale from the Celtic Wiki
The Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup was a short-lived Inter-League football competition organised by the French Football Federation that would see teams from the English Football League and the Scottish League compete against teams from the French League.
The original idea was to have four teams from Scotland and four teams from England competing together as one nation competing against eight teams from France. Due to the objection by the Scottish League this ruling was cancelled.
Two separate trophies were cast - one for Scottish clubs competing against French clubs and one for English clubs competing against French clubs. Individual clubs could not win the competition, so each country was awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
Due to disagreements as to when matches should be played, neither of the matches between Celtic and Reims took place.
Enjoy….
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The Rebels have won
4th March 1994 and Fergus McCann and Brian Dempsey step out into a dark and rainy Glasgow night to make the famous declaration - The game is over, the rebels have won.
Jubilation abound and tonight, as we publish this tale from The Celtic Wiki, we remember one of the unsung heroes of that takeover battle - John Keane who sdaly passed away today - 16th June 2024.
John was the honourary Chairman of Celtic and he got that role because, with no ownership and no certainty that he wouldn’t lose every penny, John stepped up and paid £1m to the bank to save the club from the ignomy of administration and pave the way for Fergus to take over the club.
In tribute to John, we’re therefore publishing this classic tale.
Here’s a link to the club’s statement on the passing of John - https://www.celticfc.com/news/2024/june/16/celtic-pays-tribute-to-john-keane/
Enjoy…



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Working at Celtic During the McCann Revolution
 
Fergus McCann came into Celtic Park and changed everything.  He changed the board and replaced family inheritance with business acumen.  He changed the ground from seats on Terracing to a 60,000 seated stadium.  He built all the foundations that have now established Celtic as THE premier club in Scotland.  He is one of the greatest Celts in history.
 
The transformation in Celtic pre and post March 1994 was incredible and one of the few people with a front row seat both before and after was Andrew Smith.  working at The Celtic View he was part of the team who had to put out the messaging of the old board and their proposals for a move to Cambuslang.  He was then part of the McCann messaging as he sought to transform Celtic through a share issue and the building of a new stadium.
 
The tales from Andrew are incredible, and his impersonations aren't bad either.
 
This is a 2 part podcast.  Part one is out on our standard feed and part two will be available on TheCelticunderground.substack.com
 
Enjoy...


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In the past week we've had the league secured at Rugby Park, a title party at Celtic Park rounded all off with the Cup Final at Hampden on the iconic date of 25th May.  Who else could I ask to discuss this than full-kit Jow Hart love-in man Remy McSwain.

Remy and I review everything and jump all over the place because an easy verbal ramble through the past 10 days became a rushed preview and review because the IT set up/wifi crashed.

The audio is good because the crap bits are editted out.

Enjoy...


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Following securing the league, Andrew Smith met with Celtic FC Foundation CEO Tony Hamilton to ask about the work of the Foundation and discuss the forthcoming charity game against the Dortmund Legends.

Andrew asks searching questions such as - aren't all chairtie just a tax on the poor?  But Tony robustly defends the work of the Foundation and the input of the club who are by far the biggest contributors to The Foundation.

To get tickets for the game, which takes place after the cup final, log on here
https://www.celticfc.com/tickets/celtic-legends-v-borussia-dortmund-legends/

Enjoy...


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Winners…again
 
This Saturday saw the final Glasgow Derby of the league campaign and for listeners to last week’s podcast the result will have come as no surprise.  Despite the comments of pundits, this is a game where form does not go out of the window.  It is a game that the form team (or more appropriately the better team) nearly always win.
 
Celtic are the better team.  Celtic won.
 
Whilst the league is not mathematically secured, we’re almost there being 6 points clear with just 2 games remaining.  We therefore got two boys to discuss with Harry their thoughts on the game and where we are as club.  So listen to Eddie Pearson and Andrew Smith wax lyrical about the game, the manager and the club.
 
Enjoy…


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