We all know that our club gets stick in the media here, and after the season we’ve had it can drive you a bit off your nut.
I think it’s time for a little bit of good cheer.
We deserve something to raise the spirits a bit after the campaign we’ve had, and here it is.
We’re still the best fans in the world, and we’ve proved it.
Celtic is, and has always been, more than just a football club.
Founded with charity in mind, to feed the poor of Glasgow’s East End, we are steeped in a mythos that is a source of enormous pride and satisfaction for all of us.
But this pride goes beyond our glorious foundation story; we are a club which continues to want to be more than we are, and to leave an impact, and a footprint, which outlasts us.
This article will examine the Celtic support, and the ways in which we have consistently lived up to the best traditions of our founding, and continued to spread the great name of Celtic across the globe and down through the ages.
From stories here at home to our generosity and spirit abroad, they are part of what makes us great.
You may know some of this, you may know all of it, or you may not know any of it … but you, me and all of us are proud of what we are and where we come from.
Forget the way we are sometimes portrayed in the media; this is who we are.
Celtic And Its Fans Were There For The Dunblane Families
In the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting, the Celtic Supporters Association, working through the club, contacted the families of the victims with a very special offer; to take all the survivors and their siblings to Disney World.
The club kept it low-key, but the gesture has never been forgotten in that small town.
The Celtic Supporters Association organised fundraisers for the trip and made a very generous donation from their own funds.
The CSA does so much good work that highlighting individual gestures seems unfair, but this one was definitely special and those involved remember it that way.
Celtic Fans Supported The Hillsborough Campaigners
Celtic fans have supported the Hillsborough victims at every stage in their campaign.
Justice for the 96 was more than just a slogan to us, Celtic was there for the club all the way through those dark days and we remained united alongside them as they fought for that justice.
Celtic fans showed their support all the way through the campaigns.
The two clubs have always been close – it’s not for nothing that it was Celtic that the stricken English giants played first after that dreadful event – and the roots go deep.
The bonds will never be broken.
Their fight for justice was one in which we played a part and hoped and prayed and believed along with them.
YNWA.
80,000 Celtic Fans Descended On Seville … And Made An Entire City Fall In Love With Us
Seville was the greatest European away adventure of all time.
When we reached the 2003 UEFA Cup Final, 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to the Spanish city to watch the game against Porto.
The number boggles the mind.
The airspace of Europe was literally captured by our supporters for the biggest continental supporting pilgrimage ever seen.
And incredibly, although we took over a whole city, there was not one bit of bother and not one single arrest.
No riot, in other words.
That we didn’t even win the game makes that all the more incredible.
Celtic fans really are second to none.
Celtic Fans Go The Extra Mile For The Fishermen Of Vigo
During Celtic’s incredible march to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville, the club played the Spanish club Celta Vigo.
Vigo is a fishing town, and they had suffered a calamity when a recent oil spill had harmed the entire local fishing industry.
Celtic fans on a chartered flight to the game heard about the spill, and the suffering of the local workers, and decided to do an impromptu whip-round.
It raised more than £3000.
Not a fortune, but the fishermen of Vigo were grateful for it.
This is is one of these wee stories which sums the fans up; there was no big campaign, no big fuss, a group of ordinary supporters decided on the spur of the moment to do something nice for people they had never met before.
That’s special, that’s what our fans are all about.
The CQN Site Goes The Extra Mile For One Of Its Own
When Celtic Quick News forum regular Martin “Kano” Kane fell ill his family hoped it would be a passing thing.
It wasn’t. He had fallen victim to an extremely rare disease which left him almost totally paralysed.
He would need round the clock medical care.
He faced the prospect of spending the rest of his days in a hospital.
But then the members of the forum and the wider Celtic Family weighed in, raising money and awareness of his condition.
Their incredible efforts and the generosity of their fellow supporters, raised enough to transform his home, to buy him special equipment, to give him the tools he needed to re-engage with his loved ones again.
Martin even returned to the blog eventually.
Martin has passed on, but his family remains grateful for what everyone did for them, and for Kano.
The Fans Pay Tribute To Murdered Girl Paige Doherty
When 15-year-old Paige Doherty vanished and was found murdered in Glasgow the response from all around the country was overwhelming to her family, but it was the Celtic supporters who made a banner for her, which they flew at a match against Hearts.
Reading “RIP Paige” it was a gesture which the whole country talked about, and the family hugely appreciated.
The Thai Tims Become A Global Sensation
There aren’t many clubs in world football who could do what we’ve done over in Thailand, with the famous Thai Tims.
These wonderful kids have lit up all of our lives, and there’s no doubt about that, but Celtic fans have absolutely transformed theirs, from building them a school to bringing them over for games.
We adopted all those kids, as they adopted Celtic.
The brainchild of a Celtic fan named Paul Lennon, who was living in Thailand, the idea was to teach English through song … a quite wonderful method in itself. And what better songs to teach than Celtic songs?
But it was the decision to post these videos on YouTube which created the global phenomonon …
It is incredible to think of everything we’ve done for these kids … it is equally inspiring to think of what they’ve done for us.
Martin Kane’s Plight Inspires The Kano Foundation
Out of the darkness of Martin Kane’s situation came a light that never goes out; Martin’s friends got together to start a charitable organisation in his name, the Kano Foundation, which seeks to give kids from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to come to Celtic Park for a day and experience the atmosphere and excitement of a big game.
7000 children have enjoyed that experience since the group started.
Celtic Fans Take Over Two Spanish Cities For Their European Conventions
Football fans have a bad reputation in some parts of the world, and Europe has seen its fair share of meltdowns involving large numbers of them.
That said, Seville left a very nice impression of the Celtic fans, enhancing our rep which was already very strong.
Even so, if just about any other club’s supporters announced their intention to take over an entire city, for an entire week, there’s no way it would ever have got off the ground.
Vegas and other US cities have hosted football conventions; Europe never had.
It was just not the done thing.
But the Spanish cities of Santa Ponsa and Benidorm both took a chance … and our supporter’s two European conventions further cemented our reputation as being a little bit different and our club for being a little bit special.
Celtic Fans “Match The Fine For Palestine”
One of the great moments from our supporters over the years, and one that rung out across the world.
Celtic fans have always had a commitment to social causes and to the struggle for freedom wherever it is being fought, and the Palestinians, in particular, have always had a place in our hearts.
But when the Celtic supporters flew their national flag during a match with an Israeli team in 2016, the world took note.
In the run up to the game, when fan groups announced that they would do it, there was some concern that it might not be the right thing to do.
I wrote a lengthy article against it. I believed it was disrespectful to our visitors, who had no political allegiance, and I knew, of course, that it would spark a fight with UEFA.
More than anything else, it could have looked like a futile gesture, gaining no wider publicity than the certain opprobrium of the media here at home.
It could have been a PR disaster – I actually thought it would be, and wrote that – but instead it was a triumph.
The expected UEFA fine followed … but it didn’t do the harm many expected and which some hoped.
Because Celtic’s fans announced that they would match that fine and donate the proceeds to Palestinian charities.
My faith in my fellow fans was never strengthened so much as it was by that magnificent gesture.
It was a masterstroke; not only did it raise a staggering sum of money – £176,000 – but the campaign brought global attention to the club, the fans and, more importantly, the conditions in Gaza.
The Celtic supporters also struck a blow to the heart of UEFA’s contradictory – some would say ludicrous – “non political” stance.
Astounding.
Celtic Fans Fight For Free Speech To “Axe The Act”
When the Scottish Government passed the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act it was the Celtic fans who took the lead in fighting back against it, both because it would give criminal records to a lot of people who would otherwise never have been involved in the criminal justice system, but also on the grounds that it was a clear attack on free expression.
Rallying support from, and making alliances with, journalists, academics, politicians and even rival fans, they campaigned vigorously for the law to be overturned.
They never wavered.
They never stopped fighting, and highlighting the serious problems with this hastily cobbled together and highly discriminatory legislation.
Last year it was finally put in the bin.
Celtic fans helped to do that.
Celtic Park’s Annual Homeless Sleep Out Raises Big Bucks
Every year, in November, a group of fans does a sponsored sleep-over at Celtic Park to raise money for homeless charities.
It is a small thing, but it’s an important thing.
The 2019 sleep-over netted £40,000.
It’s the only time in our campaigning history that you ever find Celtic supporters “asleep on the job”!
Celtic Fans Take On Their Own Club With The Living Wage Campaign
What made the Celtic fan’s Living Wage campaign is that we fought it against our own club, who had taken a bad decision that they would not guarantee the Living Wage to all of their employees. In a campaign that lasted more than two years, the club was forced to finally concede on the point.
It was a good day for the campaigners, but a better one for the workers.
Celtic’s initial stance on this was absolutely abysmal, and indefensible.
“It’s up to politicians to tackle poverty,” was the stance of the CEO, who’s own remuneration is pretty generous.
That statement alone was deplorable; had he forgotten that our club was founded to do just that?
But what a credit to the fans and those who submitted questions at successive AGM’s that they were not prepared to accept the official policy on this one. They were urelenting in their quest to have the policy over-turned, and in 2016 the club’s position collapsed and they changed it.
Celtic fans were never going to let our club fall behind in this crucial area.
It is a disgrace that our board was ever willing to.
The Green Brigade And Their Massive Food Bank Collections
The Green Brigade gets a lot of stick at times – mostly from people who do not know the first thing about what they do – but these guys are at the forefront of many of the Celtic fan’s best and most socially responsible campaigns.
Their annual foodbank collection really is an awe-inspiring thing, as the picture above proves.
It has become a really impressive, and important, event in the supporter’s calendar and that it does a lot of good cannot really be doubted when you look at all that stuff.
Our Greatest Act? The Life Saving Walfrid Wells
All across Africa and the developing world, there are dozens of wells in tiny villages which are named for Celtic fans and organisations, put there by the Supporters Association who raised the money for each individual one.
This might well be the most definitive thing that the club and its fans have done, a gesture that goes beyond simply raising a few quid and handing it to a charity.
This has changed lives.
This has saved lives.
The Celtic FC Foundation And Their Famous Bucket Collections
Celtic fans have been doing annual bucket collections at the ground for years now, for various club-related charities and causes.
This is why the Celtic FC Foundation – the registered charity which administers all these affairs, has been able to donate such huge sums of money to good causes since its inception in 2013.
Prior to that, it had been called The Celtic Charity Fund, which between 1995 and 2013 had raised over £5 million.
Celtic Fans Pay A Stunning Tribute To Miklos Feher
In January 2004, the Hungarian striker Miklos Feher, of Benfica, collapsed on the pitch whilst playing for his club in a league game.
He was taken to hospital where he later died of a cardiac arrest.
The club’s shock was profound.
Two years later, Celtic went to Portugal to play Benfica in a Champions League tie … and the fans unveiled a magnificent banner in tribute to the fallen hero.
This is one of the finest gestures this wonderful support has ever made, and it earned us the praise and recognition not only of Benfica itself but from UEFA, FIFA and the Hungarian federation who could not believe that rival supporters had done something so profound.
That affair was a credit to our fans, it really was. It was an echo of the ethos of our whole club going back to its founding.
Amazing.
Our Ground Has The Best Atmosphere In Europe
Everyone from Lionel Messi to Paolo Maldini have praised the atmosphere at Celtic Park, with online polls, top managers and world-class journalists placing it in the very highest echelon.
Many – and they are correct – think that Celtic Park has the best atmosphere in Europe.
Only one ground – Anfield – consistently challenges us for that title but when you’ve heard You’ll Never Walk Alone sung by our fans on a Champions League night there is simply no doubt at all that Paradise is aptly named.
Celtic Fans Go Out Of Their Way To Make Friends All Over The World
We are often sneered at for it, but Celtic has established numerous friendships and alliances with clubs all around the world.
Our fans have formed great relationships with supporters at clubs like Barcelona, Villarreal, Liverpool, Atalanta, Dortmund, St Pauli and others, and, of course, our support for numerous political causes has made us extremely popular beyond our borders.
It’s not for nothing that we, like Barcelona, are called “more than just a club.”
Celtic Fans Have Won Both UEFA And FIFA Awards
And if all this didn’t already make your heart swell with pride, our supporters are the winners of several awards from FIFA and UEFA.
Those from the European governing body are a source of special pride to the fans because of the way our critics and enemies have attempted to characterise us as a source of trouble in Nyon; it simply isn’t true and they know it.
As usual, it’s those here at home who question it.
The rest of the world knows exactly who, and what, we are … and they honour us for it.