"The Rebels Have Won!" - 30 Years Ago Today

Yeah, the whole Cadete Affair was a complete farce on behalf of Farry & the SFA.

TBH, from the moment McCann arrived the SFA did everything they could to get their pound of flesh out of him and Celtic. The out of all proportion fines levelled at Celtic for 'tapping up' Tommy Burns, who was at Killie at the time, was like 10x larger than the next biggest compensation/fine that the SFA had ever ordered a club to pay for a similiar incident, which was only a season or two beforehand.

Then there was the lease of Hampden Park for that 1994/95 season. Not only did they make Celtic fork out £500,000 in rent per home game played there, as well as not allowing Celtic to put up any sort of badging, advertizing for their sponsors etc (that were not also somehow sponsoring the SFA or the Scottish NT in some capacity), and all of the concession stands revenues for food or drink etc went to the SFA/Queen's Park, not to Celtic.

So by the time the Cadete incident happened, let's just say McCann had had enough of being dicked around by the SFA and was not going to just let it slide, or that Celtic were not to be treated like second class citizens anymore, just as had happened with the Irish Flag incident in 1952.

But there were so many ways that McCann changed the entire face of Celtic and all the success since. The popularization of ST's for instance was a massive step in that it gave the club assured income as well as a large pool of money to then could be budgeted for transfers, operations etc in advance rather than living hand to mouth, from game to game.

Then there was the share float, the largest and most successful of it's type at that time in football history, that significantly helped finance the building of the stadium, the business infrastructure that has been the foundation for the club since then, brought in an array of talents... PvH, Di Canio, Cadete, Lambert, Henrik, Lubo, etc, which in turn helped bring success on the park, with the 1995 Scottish Cup, and then the 1997/98 'Stop the 10' double winning season, the first league win since the Centenary etc.

But he was always a business man first, so it wasn't all roses.

There were player disputes, such as players demanding guarenteed European bonuses, or even club legends like Paul McStay only being offered a 'pay per play' deal because of the ankle issues that plagued the end of his career, the departure of Tommy Burns around the same time, etc.

Even though he had hired Jock Brown for that very reason to deal with most of the football type matters at that level, the stuff with Jansen and Brown never sat really well either, but again a lot of this type of stuff was the sort of growing pains the club had to go through, and McCann was not there as a fan first, but rather with his business hat (or rather bunnet ) on, and was backing Jock Brown over the football people was indicative of that.

 

I was 13/14 at the time also wondering * was going on with Celtic at the time. On the news that we where going under etc.. thinking *! Remember all the boycotts and not really understanding the ins and outs why the support would do this.

Interesting time in our family life too in and around then aswell. We were supposed to move away out of Belfast up to ballycastle to get away from all the madness of the troubles going on in Belfast and around the north. Lovely wee seeside town it was/is. My da was a bus man in Belfast city. Got a transfer to up the north coast. House up there sorted for us. All packed up ready to move only for the very night before it my da gets a phone call to say someone else got the transfer and my da wasn't getting it now. Even thou it was already agreed and packed ready to go! Turned out some orange * in the orange order took it instead and so, as it was in the north back then, a wee * from Ardoyne wasnt getting it anymore. My da was * devastated fs, his football club falling apart and now his future away from Belfast getting his kids away from the madness too fell apart.

Think he was over for a few boycotts too outside the ground although I think that was just an excuse to get away for a wknd on the soup haha. Didn't we still go in for the Huns games thou?

As for the actual day wee Fergus saved us. Remember it well!

Definitely that man needs a stand or statue outside the stadium although one day I think this will happen?

 

Strange to think we are now further away in time from Fergus saving Celtic than they were from the Lisbon Lions.

 

What a Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Been watching these Celtic Exchange interviews last few days, some brilliant stuff in there. Wee Fergus obviously gets all the recognition but plenty of others deserve major appreciation for the work they put in over they years.

Massive thanks to Brian Dempsey for his input. Totally selfless, never wanted a thing for himself, only for the snakes to be driven out and the fans to have their club back. What a * hero, and a natural storyteller. Gob bless Mr Dempsey.

 

Fantastic series

It’s actually essential listening imo if you’re a Celtic supporter.

 

I've listened to all these. Brilliant series. Just need to get The Bunnet himself on to top it off.

 

The man who saved Celtic. Thank you for all time, Fergus.

 

Cheers, Taz, a good read.

 

Great thread.
Assuming significant investment across the city, hopefully current board have also consigned todays somewhat larger biscuit tin to history.

 

North Stand - Fergus McCann Stand

Make it happen whilst the wee man is able to name it in person.

 

This, simply this.
And this time he would properly get the reception he deserved.