“The Bunnet”. Probably THE most important figure in our history since Jock Stein. The man who saved Celtic from going under and paid all the bills. Twenty seven years ago to the day, McCann and Dempsey stood on the threshold of Celtic Park and proudly exclaimed, “The war is over, the rebels have won!” and since then Celtic have went on from strength to strength to the extent that when he left in 1999 Celtic have dominated Scottish football in a period of utter dominance not seen since the 60’s.
As most readers know, I love listening to Celtic podcasts and today I was catching up with Jarrod, Shaun and Liam on the Celtic Down Under podcast episode, Performative Action, and the chat varied from the Hoops performance against Aberdeen, to the next Celtic manager and the style of football fans would like to see at Paradise under the incoming new manager, whoever that may be. It was a great episode and I would urge you to have a listen.
Anyway, the conversation turned to the topic of Resolution 12 and what would Fergus have done had this shambles unfolded on his watch. For those unfamiliar with Resolution 12 you can find a general summary here . Celtic fans have long been questioning the SFA’s governance of our game and Resolution 12 was urging the board to take action on the SFA licencing process which may have cost Celtic a place in the Champions League, and therefor losing out on the potential of millions of pounds of prize money.
As the chat turned to R12, co host Liam, was vociferous in his opinion on the action McCann would have taken if he was still at the helm, “You know you made the reference to Fergus McCann there. Wee Fergus would have had us (Celtic) resigning from the league over this.”
Is Resolution 12 dead?
Yes
No
His opinion was echoed but Shaun who replied, “As much as I love McCann for the stadium and the share issue, one of the things probably is the greatest thing he does was the Jim Farry. Nobody else has done that before since”
We all recall “Farrygate” where McCann took the SFA to task for withholding back Jorge Cadete’s registration so that he would not be eligible for the Glasgow Derby back in 1996, which Celtic lost 2-1. McCann refused to be drawn into Farry’s reasons at that time when he said, “I’m not claiming there was malice but there was intent. There was a failure on his part despite the advice of FIFA and Celtic. This is a matter that goes beyond Celtic Football Club, it’s a question of somebody who has failed to follow the rules of football.”
It was the largest exposure of ineptness (there are stronger words that I could use but cannot) at the top level in the game and who knows what may have occurred had McCann stuck around to oversee the events of 2012 and beyond?
Think you know your history? Can you name Celtic’s top goal scorers between the 1999/00 and 2008/09 season? Challenge your friends and family to beat your score!