#Delboy When I was sitting at the charity game on Sunday for Stan Petrov, it suddenly made me think about Fergus McCann and just how important a figure for Celtic he really is. Nicknames ‘The Bunnet’, the £7m debt held by Celtic at the time was cleared by the Scottish born Canadian businessman and entrepreneur. It was a very dark day for Celtic fans way back in March 1994, but huge relief came when McCann handed over the cheque to save Celtic from becoming non-existent. McCann recently said: “The balance sheet turned out to be negative, insolvent. Other liabilities, even a big tax claim regarding Paul Elliott, had to be met. It would’ve cost less, and left the previous owners with nothing, to go into liquidation but it would also be humiliating for Celtic. So we paid all the bills. Although many said that relying on supporters to provide more capital in a share issue was a gamble that wouldn’t succeed, the fans came through with £10 million. It was an exciting time, but a daunting responsibility to take on. I was now responsible to 10,000 shareholders as well. When I set a target of 52,000 season tickets, the support understood and responded. And it took a few years for success on the field to occur. Celtic Park was built with 60,000 seats for a reason – active supporters who make the commitment to be there to fill it instead of watching TV are the strengths of the club.” Fergus McCann was responsible for a lot of changes at Celtic during his five year stint at the club, helping get them back onto two feet and up and running again. He successfully switched from a private limited company to a PLC, he built the 60,000 stadium to what it is now and he increased season ticket sales. He injected £1.5 million into the youth academy set up, organised the Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign and eventually raised the attendances to the highest in Scotland. Basically Fergus completely changed the structure of the club and the way the club was run financially. His five year plan worked out in the end in both ways. The obvious one being that Celtic Football Club was saved; the other was the fact that Celtic stopped Rangers (RIP) getting 10 in a row, unable to oust Jock Stein’s 9 in a row. On the day that Celtic had to be taken over, fans had already woken up to paper headlines marking the death of the club. This was soon to be proved a premature move by the ever reliable newspapers. I was too young to remember it all, I was only 6 years old in 1994, but I’ve grown up to all of the stories and read all about how the club was saved Back to my original thinking while I was at Stan Petrov’s charity match, it made me ponder whether Celtic should recognise Fergus McCann. I couldn’t think of any reason why the club shouldn’t, after all he is the reason Celtic are where they are to date. Without his money, knowledge and help I wouldn’t have my beloved Celtic to support. In some ways his work hasn’t fully been appreciated. In the last few years I’ve started to appreciate Fergus more, after reading and realising about how important he was in the history of the club. At a young age, you don’t know what’s going on, you can’t fully understand at the age I and many others were. I’m 24 now and everyday I appreciate ‘The Bunnet’ more and more. We’ve already got statues at the stadium recognising Brother Walfrid, Jock Stein and Jimmy Johnstone. One more won’t do any harm and it will go down extremely well with the Celtic fans, seeing that the club have recognised Fergus McCann. I’m pretty sure Fergus himself would be delighted with it. The countless Cups that Celtic have got stored in their trophy room are all still there due to Fergus. They are still being added to and will be added to for a very long time thanks to Fergus. The thousands of fans out there wouldn’t have had Celtic to support if it wasn’t for Fergus. There are many factors to look at in which we can be eternally grateful to Fergus for. It’s time he was recognised.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 13:30:08 +0000
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