Fergus McCann looks back at his time at Celtic

I was unaware of this. Shocking Fergus.

 

History has been kind to Fergus McCann, and rightly so, but his tenure rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way and people who booed him that day did it for all the right reasons (at the time).

It's easy in hindsight to say booing him was disgraceful, but it's to forget the situation at the time.

 

Legend of a man done everything he said he would do,im so ashamed i booed this man at the unfurling of the flag if i could turn back time with me still being young i didnt really take in what this great man done for us i would slap myself

 

thats a bit of a sweeping statement to make with nothing to prove it


I have 2 & 3 but not the first.

I don’t think the first is in print anymore.

The third one has a chapter written by the late, great Tommy Burns.

It’s a great read. Tommy says he didn’t feel the ‘Bhoys Against Bigotry’ was really necessary at Parkhead.

Tommy Burns, the late former Celtic manager, felt that the club’s high-profile antisectarianism campaign was unnecessary and contrived, according to a previously unpublished article written shortly before his death.

Burns, who died from skin cancer last year, felt obliged to back the Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign despite his efforts to persuade Fergus McCann, the club’s then owner, that there was no evidence of sectarianism at Parkhead.

In the essay, to be published in a new book about the club later this week, Burns accuses the Canadian tycoon of alienating some of Celtic’s traditional supporters by trying to play down its Catholic Irish roots.

He also reflects on his own mortality and tells how he “talked to * often” and drew strength from his faith.

The Bhoys Against Bigotry initiative, launched in 1996, aimed to discourage IRA chants and other sectarian behaviour among Celtic fans. The scheme, which won a European Union award for promoting equality, involved stripping season tickets from fans who engaged in sectarian chanting, and funding anti-discrimination workshops in Glasgow schools.
However, in an essay for Celtic Minded 3, the latest in a series of books about the politics and culture of Celtic, Burns says it was unnecessary.

“The Catholic faith was something people here [at Celtic] were comfortable with and no one felt a need to hide or disguise it,” writes Burns, who managed the club from 1994-7.
“This is one of the reasons why I had a lot of difficulty with Fergus McCann’s Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign.
“As far as I was concerned, our club had no problem. I never sensed anything untoward against people at our club or elsewhere who were not from the Catholic faith.”

Nevertheless, Burns became a figurehead for the campaign, endorsing it publicly. At a joint press
conference with Scum manager Walter Smith in 1996, he said: “Bhoys Against Bigotry has helped and I have noticed a huge reduction in sectarian singing at Parkhead.”
However, privately, he had grave doubts about the initiative as well as other attempts to improve the image of the SPL club, which was founded by Irish immigrants in 1888.

“Something happened at the club around Fergus’s time, they seemed to want to embark on a sort of crusade to change aspects of the club. I told Fergus that we don’t have bigotry here,” he wrote.

While Burns said there was a small but vociferous minority of bigoted “idiots” among the club’s supporters, he added: “I always felt that Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign was not really addressing these people and a whole lot of other things were being thrown in or invented.”
Burns, who was then in the later stages of his battle with skin cancer, used the article to reflect on mortality, his faith and the meaning of life.

“We’re only passing through this life,” he wrote. “I think we are put here for a reason: to develop our souls.”
He added: “I talk to * often, tell him how much I love Him, thank Him or whatever.”

McCann, who left the club in 1999, was hailed as a saviour by some Celtic fans for preventing the club from going bust, but others felt that he was uninterested in the club’s traditions.
The tycoon tried to widen the team’s appeal by proposing including a thistle in the team badge, but traditionalists revolted, claiming it would dilute their Irish heritage.

Burns, who played and managed at Celtic and helped the team win the double in 1988, is widely viewed as one of club’s most loyal servants. There was dismay when he was sacked by McCann in 1997 for failing to depose Scum as champions.
Despite being founded by Irish-born Catholics, Celtic hs always fielded players from other denominations and backgrounds.

The publication of Burns’s posthumous essay comes the day after Celtic presented his children with £26,000 for their skin cancer charity.
Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s chief executive, said yesterday: “Tommy will always be held in such high esteem by all who knew him and he will always be a part of Celtic Football Club.”

A spokesman for McCann, who runs a luxury coach firm in America, said he did not wish to comment.

 

Interesting post, Smithy. It's curious to see the club receive more of a push in a different direction as the years go on. Fergus did indeed attempt to smarten up the image of the club and it's place in the game, and he's certainly left the club in similar hands.

 

I think we all know in hindsight how great this man is.

At the time I wasn't even a teenager but even I can recall the "biscuit tin" jibes from the media.

Let's face it - their puppetmaster David 'Succulent Lamb' Murray wrote their agenda and they ran with it so they could get the exclusive about the next Gazza or Laudrup signing.

The media's hands are dirty in forming a negative public perception of The Bunnet and I think nowadays they wouldn't be able to influence the mind of a two year old.

 

There's always going to be differences of opinion between the men at the top...personaly I think some of it should stay behind closed doors. There's a story that one day Fergus walking around the park noticed the tri colour wasn't where it should be......he apparently went of his rocker until someone explained that it had been taken down to be cleaned up. His apparent words were that flag should always be in place irrespective as it represented the clubs link to all things Irish.

 

I could believe that. I think that interview showed that the clubs history was something that meant a lot to him just because he didn't like the rebs doesn't mean that he was anti our irish history, some of the greatest figures of our club have spoken out about the rebs and they don't receive the level of abuse that the bunnet does

 

Tommy Burns is a real Celtic Legend, although Fergus McCann did save us and I'm grateful for that! He had some mental ideas that would have changed Celtic for the worse if left unchecked.

 

a don't think that should make fergus any less of a celtic legend at the end of the day everybody has different ideas and not everyone will agree with them am sure had fergus gave tommy an ultimatum and left him to run everything in the club then we would be in a worse state

 

at the end of the day football legend that tommy was fergus was a business man and i believe that if you look at a lot of the top teams worldwide they are now run by business men. Said before i was ashamed the day he was booed because no matter what people thought he saved our club and helped put us were we are now and another little point when you look back tommy was sacked because he couldnt beat a rangers team paid for by money they didnt have so if the field had been equal surely can be argued that tommy would have won AND he would have been celtic manager for at least a while longer

 

The man was a saviour without him there would be no CFC now .

 

have to say i disagree no right reasons people argue and diasgree all the time look at it now were some fans have broguht the clubs name through the dirt with pro ira chants etc whilst we never had a problem in the same league as rangers with regards bigotry you take this as the opinion of someone on the outside looking in and he thought there was a problem or at least potential problem which has proved to be correct

 

Stopped right at the bolded part. Utter pish!