football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League Cup and the

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

. Celtic also reached the

1970 European Cup Final The 1970 European Cup Final was a football match held at the San Siro, Milan, on 6 May 1970, that saw Feijenoord of the Netherlands defeat Celtic of Scotland 2–1 after extra time. Ove Kindvall's goal in the 117th minute meant the trophy was ...

and the

2003 UEFA Cup Final The 2003 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 2003 between Celtic of Scotland and Porto of Portugal. Porto won the match 3–2 in extra time thanks to a goal from Derlei. This was also the first game to use the silver goal rule, although it di ...

, losing in both. Celtic have a long-standing fierce rivalry with Rangers, and the clubs are known as the

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

, seen by some as the world's biggest football derby. The club's fanbase was estimated in 2003 as being around nine million worldwide, and there are more than 160 Celtic supporters clubs in over 20 countries. An estimated 80,000 fans travelled to

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final, and their "extraordinarily loyal and sporting behaviour" in spite of defeat earned the club

Fair Play Fair play or Fairplay usually refers to sportsmanship. Fair play or Fairplay may also refer to: Media * ''Fair Play'' (1925 film), an American silent film * ''Fair Play'', a 1972 TV movie starring Paul Ford * ''Fair Play'' (2014 film), a Czech ...

awards from

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

.

History

Celtic Football Club was formally constituted at a meeting in St. Mary's church hall in East Rose Street (now Forbes Street), Calton, Glasgow, by Irish Marist

Brother Walfrid Andrew Kerins ( ga, Aindreas Ó Céirín; 18 May 1840 – 17 April 1915), known by his religious name Brother Walfrid, was an Irish Marist Brother and is best remembered for being the founder of Scottish football club Celtic. Life Walfrid was ...

on 6 November 1887, with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the East End of Glasgow by raising money for the charity Walfrid had instituted, the ''Poor Children's Dinner Table''. Walfrid's move to establish the club as a means of fund-raising was largely inspired by the example of Hibernian, which was formed out of the immigrant Irish population a few years earlier in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Walfrid's own suggestion of the name ''Celtic'' (pronounced ''Seltik'') was intended to reflect the club's Irish and Scottish roots and was adopted at the same meeting. The club has the official nickname, ''The Bhoys''. However, according to the Celtic press office, the newly established club was known to many as "the bold boys". A

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...

from the early 20th century that pictured the team and read "The Bould Bhoys" is the first known example of the unique spelling. The extra ''h'' imitates the spelling system of Gaelic, wherein the letter ''b'' is often accompanied by the letter ''h''. Celtic fc 1889

On 28 May 1888, Celtic played their first official match against Rangers and won 5–2 in what was described as a "friendly encounter". Neil McCallum scored Celtic's first goal. Celtic's first kit consisted of a white shirt with a green collar, black shorts, and emerald green socks. The original club crest was a simple green

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

on a red oval background. In 1889 Celtic reached the final of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Third Lanark. Celtic reached the final again in 1892 and this time were victorious after defeating Queen's Park 5–1, the club's first major honour. Several months later the club moved to its new ground, Celtic Park, and in the following season won the

Scottish League Championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

for the first time. In 1895, Celtic set the League record for the highest home score when they beat

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

11–0. In 1897, the club became a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the ''LLC'' in the United St ...

and Willie Maley was appointed as the first 'secretary-

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

'. Between 1905 and 1910, Celtic won the Scottish League Championship six times in a row. They also won the Scottish Cup in both 1907 and 1908, the first times a Scottish club had ever won the

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Celtic won the league four times in a row, including 62 matches unbeaten between November 1915 and April 1917. The mid-1920s saw the emergence of

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

as one of the most prolific goalscorers in British football history; over a sixteen-year playing career, he scored 550 goals in 547 games (including 16 goals for Clydebank during a season on loan in 1923–24), a British goal-scoring record to this day. In January 1940, Willie Maley's retirement was announced. He was 71 years old and had served the club in varying roles for nearly 52 years, initially as a player and then as secretary-manager.

Jimmy McStay James McStay (1 April 1895 – 31 December 1973) was a Scottish football player and manager. He spent most of his career at Celtic, and was a captain and manager for the club. Career A full back (successfully converted from left half by man ...

became manager of the club in February 1940. He spent over five years in this role, although due to the Second World War no official competitive league football took place during this time. The Scottish Football League and Scottish Cup were suspended and in their place regional league competitions were set up. Celtic did not do particularly well during the war years, but did win the Victory in Europe Cup held in May 1945 as a one-off

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

match to celebrate

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...

. Ex-player and captain Jimmy McGrory took over as manager in 1945. Under McGrory, Celtic defeated

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

,

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and Hibernian to win the

Coronation Cup The Coronation Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 6 yards (2 ...

, a one-off tournament held in May 1953 to commemorate the coronation of

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

. He also led them to a League and Cup double in 1954. On 19 October 1957, Celtic defeated Rangers in the final of the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

at Hampden Park in Glasgow, retaining the trophy they had won for the first time the previous year; the 7–1 scoreline remains a record win in a British domestic cup final. The years that followed, however, saw Celtic struggle and the club won no more trophies under McGrory. Former Celtic captain Jock Stein succeeded McGrory in 1965. He won the Scottish Cup in his first few months at the club, and then led them to the League title the following season. 1967 was Celtic's annus mirabilis. The club won every competition they entered: the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

, and the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. Under the leadership of Stein, the club defeated

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

2–1 at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, on 25 May 1967 to become the first British team, and indeed the first from outside Spain, Portugal and Italy to win the competition. They remain the only Scottish team to have reached the final. The players that day, all of whom were born within 30 miles of Glasgow, subsequently became known as the "

Lisbon Lions The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic team that won the European Cup at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1. The name is likely due to the fact that the Lisbon-based Sporting foo ...

". The following season Celtic lost to

Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Po ...

of Argentina in the Intercontinental Cup. Celtic reached the European Cup Final again in 1970, but were beaten 2–1 by

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after i ...

at the

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums ...

in Milan. The club continued to dominate Scottish football in the early 1970s, and their Scottish Championship win in 1974 was their ninth consecutive league title, equalling the joint world record held at the time by

MTK Budapest Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre is a multi-sports club from Budapest, founded in 1888. It has sections for football, handball, basketball, volleyball, futsal, ice hockey, water polo, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, fencing, canoeing, boxing, wrestlin ...

and CSKA Sofia. Celtic enjoyed further domestic success in the 1980s, and in their Centenary season of 1987–88 won a

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) ...

and Scottish Cup double. The club endured a slump in the early 1990s, culminating in the Bank of Scotland informing directors on 3 March 1994 that it was calling in the receivers as a result of the club exceeding a £5 million

overdraft An overdraft occurs when something is withdrawn in excess of what is in a current account. For financial systems, this can be funds in a bank account. For water resources, it can be groundwater in an aquifer. In these situations the account is s ...

. However, expatriate businessman Fergus McCann wrested control of the club, and ousted the family dynasties which had controlled Celtic since its foundation. According to media reports, McCann took over the club minutes before it was to be declared bankrupt. McCann reconstituted the club business as a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

– Celtic PLC – and oversaw the redevelopment of Celtic Park into a 60,832 all-seater stadium. In 1998 Celtic won the title again under Dutchman Wim Jansen and prevented Rangers from beating their nine-in-a-row record.

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his play ...

took charge of the club in June 2000. Under his leadership, Celtic won three SPL championships out of five (losing the others by very small margins) and in his first season in charge the club also won the domestic treble, making O'Neill only the second Celtic manager to do so after Jock Stein. In 2003, around 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to watch the club compete in the UEFA Cup Final in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

. Celtic lost 3–2 to

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

after extra time, despite two goals from Henrik Larsson during normal time. The conduct of the thousands of travelling Celtic supporters received widespread praise from the people of Seville and the fans were awarded Fair Play Awards from both

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

"for their extraordinarily loyal and sporting behaviour".

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Co ...

was announced as O'Neill's replacement in June 2005 and after winning the SPL title in his first year in charge, he became only the third Celtic manager to win three titles in a row. He also guided Celtic to their first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

knockout stage in 2006–07 and repeated the feat in 2007–08 before departing the club in May 2009, after failing to win the SPL title. Tony Mowbray took charge of the club in June 2009, and he was succeeded a year later by Neil Lennon. In November 2010, Celtic set an SPL record for the biggest win in SPL history, defeating Aberdeen 9–0 at Celtic Park. Celtic celebrated their 125th anniversary in November 2012, the same week as a Champions League match against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. They won 2–1 on the night to complete a memorable week, and eventually qualified from the group stages for the round of 16. Celtic finished the season with the SPL and Scottish Cup double. The club clinched their third consecutive league title in March 2014, with goalkeeper

Fraser Forster Fraser Gerard Forster (born 17 March 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Forster started his career with Newcastle United and had brief loan spells with Stockport ...

setting a new record during the campaign of 1,256 minutes without conceding a goal in a league match. At the end of the season, manager Neil Lennon announced his departure from the club after four years in the role. Norwegian Ronny Deila was appointed manager of Celtic on 6 June 2014. He went on to lead the team to two consecutive league titles and a League Cup, but the team's performances in European competition were poor. After being eliminated from the Scottish Cup by Rangers in April 2016, Deila announced he would leave the club at the end of the season. On 20 May 2016, Brendan Rodgers was announced as Deila's successor. His first season saw the team go on a long unbeaten run in domestic competitions, during which time the club won their 100th major trophy, defeating

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

3–0 in the League Cup Final in November 2016. Celtic also clinched their sixth successive league title in April 2017 with a record eight league games to spare, and eventually finished with a record 106 points, becoming the first Scottish side to complete a top-flight league season undefeated since Rangers in 1899. Celtic clinched their fourth treble by defeating Aberdeen 2–1 in the

2017 Scottish Cup Final The 2017 Scottish Cup Final was the 132nd final of the Scottish Cup and the final of the 2016–17 Scottish Cup, the most prestigious knockout football competition in Scotland. The match took place at Hampden Park on 27 May 2017 and was contested ...

, the result of which saw the club go through the entire domestic season unbeaten. Celtic continued their unbeaten domestic run into the following season, eventually extending it to 69 games, surpassing their own 100-year-old British record of 62 games, before finally losing to Hearts in November 2017. Celtic retained the League Cup that same month by defeating Motherwell in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, and went on to clinch their seventh consecutive league title in April 2018. They went on to defeat Motherwell again in the 2018 Scottish Cup Final to clinch a second consecutive domestic treble (the "double treble"), the first club in Scotland to do so. Rodgers left the club midway through following season to join Leicester City; Neil Lennon returned as caretaker manager for the rest of the season and helped Celtic secure an unprecedented third consecutive domestic treble (the "treble treble"), defeating Hearts 2–1 in the 2019 Scottish Cup Final. Later that month, he was confirmed as the club's new manager. In December 2019, Lennon led Celtic to a 1–0 win over Rangers in the

2019 Scottish League Cup Final The 2019 Scottish League Cup Final was an association football match that took place on 8 December 2019 at Hampden Park, Glasgow. It was the final match of the 2019–20 Scottish League Cup, the 74th season of the Scottish League Cup (known as th ...

, the club's tenth consecutive domestic trophy. By March 2020, Celtic were 13 points ahead in the league when professional football in Scotland was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. they were confirmed as champions in May 2020 following a

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As w ...

board meeting where it was agreed that completing the full league campaign was infeasible. The completion of the 2019–20 Scottish Cup was delayed, with the semi-finals and final – between Celtic and Hearts as in the previous year – not taking place until late autumn/winter of 2020. Celtic won on penalty-kicks after the sides tied at 3–3 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

, clinching a fourth successive treble. However, Celtic struggled throughout the 2020–21 season with poor performances in Europe, knocked out of the League Cup by Ross County, and by February 2021 were trailing 18 points behind Rangers in the league – effectively ending their hopes of winning "ten in a row" league titles. Lennon resigned on 24 February 2021, with assistant manager John Kennedy taking interim charge of the team. In the closing weeks of the season, Celtic were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Rangers which condemned them to their first trophy-less season since 2010, and finished the league campaign 25 points behind their Glasgow rivals.

Crest and colours

For most of Celtic's history their home strip has featured green and white horizontal hoops, but their original strip consisted of a white top with black shorts and black and green hooped socks. The top also featured the Marist Brothers' badge on the right hand side, consisting of a green Celtic cross inside a red circle. In 1889, the club changed to a green and white vertically striped top and for the next fourteen years this remained unchanged although the colour of the shorts alternated between white and black several times over this period. The top did not feature a crest. In 1903, Celtic adopted their now famous green and white hooped tops. The new design was worn for the first time on 15 August 1903 in a match against Partick Thistle. Black socks continued to be worn until the early 1930s, at which point the team switched to green socks. Plain white socks came into use in the mid-1960s, and white has been the predominant colour worn since then. The club began using a badge in the 1930s, featuring a four leaf clover logo surrounded by the club's formal title, "The Celtic Football and Athletic Coy. Ltd". However, it was not until 1977 that Celtic finally adopted the club crest on their shirts. The outer segment was reversed out, with white lettering on a green background on the team shirts. The text around the clover logo on the shirts was also shortened from the official club crest to "The Celtic Football Club". For their centenary year in 1988, a commemorative crest was worn, featuring the Celtic cross that appeared on their first shirts. The 1977 version was reinstated for season 1989–90. From 1945 onwards numbered shirts slowly came into use throughout Scotland, before becoming compulsory in 1960. By this time Celtic were the last club in Britain to adopt the use of numbers on the team strip to identify players. The traditionalist and idealistic Celtic chairman, Robert Kelly, baulked at the prospect of the famous green and white hoops being disfigured, and as such Celtic wore their numbers on the players' shorts. This unusual tradition survived until 1994, although numbered shirts were worn in

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

from 1975 onwards. Celtic's tradition of wearing numbers on their shorts rather than on the back of their shirts was brought to an end when the Scottish Football League instructed Celtic to wear numbers on their shirts from the start of the 1994–95 season. Celtic responded by adding numbers to the top of their sleeves, however within a few weeks the football authorities ordered the club to attach them to the back of their shirts, where they appeared on a large white patch, breaking up the green and white hoops. In 1984 Celtic took up shirt sponsorship for the first time, with Fife-based double glazing firm CR Smith having their logo emblazoned on the front of the team jersey. In season 1991–92, Celtic switched to Glasgow-based car sales company Peoples as sponsors. The club failed to secure a shirt sponsor for season 1992–93, and for the first time since the early 1980s Celtic took to the field in 'unblemished' hoops. Despite the loss of marketing revenue, sales of the new unsponsored replica top increased dramatically. Celtic regained shirt sponsorship for season 1993–94, with CR Smith returning as shirt sponsors in a four-year deal. In 2005 the club severed their connection with

Umbro Umbro is an English sports equipment manufacturer founded in 1924 in Wilmslow, Cheshire and based in Manchester. They specialise in football and rugby sportswear featuring their ''Double Diamond'' logo. Umbro products are marketed in over 1 ...

, suppliers of their kits since the 1960s and entered into a contract with Nike. To mark the 40th anniversary of their European Cup win, a special crest was introduced for the 2007–08 season. The star that represents this triumph was retained when the usual crest was reinstated the following season. In 2012, a retro style kit was designed by Nike that included narrower hoops to mark the club's 125th anniversary. A special crest was introduced with a Celtic knot design embroidered round the traditional badge. A third-choice strip based on the first strip from 1888 was also adopted for the season. In March 2015, Celtic agreed a new kit deal worth £30 million with

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based sportswear manufacturer New Balance to replace Nike from the start of the 2015–16 season. All of the kits for the 2017–18 season paid tribute to the

Lisbon Lions The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic team that won the European Cup at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1. The name is likely due to the fact that the Lisbon-based Sporting foo ...

, with the kits having a line on each side to represent the handles of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. The kits also included a commemorative crest, designed specifically for the season. The regular crest was reinstated the following season, although the away strip featured a Celtic cross once again in reference to the club's heritage. In March 2020, Celtic announced a new five-year partnership with

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacture ...

starting on 1 July 2020, in a deal believed to be the biggest kit sponsorship ever in Scottish sport.

Stadium

Celtic's stadium is Celtic Park, which is in the Parkhead area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

. Celtic Park, an all-seater stadium with a capacity of , is the largest football stadium in Scotland and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom, after Murrayfield, Old Trafford,

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boro ...

, Wembley, the London Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national r ...

. It is commonly known as Parkhead or Paradise. Celtic opened the original Celtic Park in the Parkhead area in 1888. The club moved to a different site in 1892, however, when the rental charge was greatly increased. The new site was developed into an oval shaped stadium, with vast terracing sections. The record attendance of 83,500 was set by an

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

derby on 1 January 1938. The terraces were covered and floodlights were installed between 1957 and 1971. The Taylor Report mandated that all major clubs should have an all-seated stadium by August 1994. Celtic was in a bad financial position in the early 1990s and no major work was carried out until Fergus McCann took control of the club in March 1994. He carried out a plan to demolish the old terraces and develop a new stadium in a phased rebuild, which was completed in August 1998. During this development, Celtic spent the 1994–95 season playing at the national stadium Hampden Park, costing the club £500,000 in rent. The total cost of the new stadium on its completion was £40 million. Celtic Park has been used as a venue for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

internationals and Cup Finals, particularly when Hampden Park has been unavailable. Before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Celtic Park hosted various other sporting events, including

composite rules shinty-hurling Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

, track and field and the 1897

Track Cycling World Championships The UCI Track Cycling World Championships are the set of world championship events for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling. They are regulated by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Before 1900, they were administered by the UCI ...

. Open-air masses, and First World War recruitment drives have also been held there. In more recent years, Celtic Park has hosted the

Opening Ceremonies An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

of the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

, the 2005 Special Olympics National Games and the 1990 Special Olympics European Games. Celtic Park has occasionally been used for concerts, including performances by

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

and U2. In July 2016, Celtic Park became the first British football stadium to have a " rail seating" (safe standing) area in the ground. Rail seating is particularly common in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

, most notably at

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

's

Westfalenstadion Westfalenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Officially called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons and BVB Stadion Dortmund in UEFA competitions, the ...

, a ground with a reputation on par with Celtic Park for its intensity and atmosphere. In June 2018, Celtic announced a series of stadium improvements that would be implemented before the 2018–19 season. These include the installation of new LED floodlights and a new entertainment system, a stadium-wide PA system and a new hybrid playing surface.

Supporters

In 2003 Celtic were estimated to have a fan base of nine million people, including one million in the US and Canada. There are over 160 Celtic Supporters Clubs in over 20 countries around the world. An estimated 80,000 Celtic supporters, many without match tickets, travelled to Seville in Spain for the UEFA Cup Final in May 2003. The club's fans subsequently received awards from

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

and

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

for their behaviour at the match.Alt URL
Celtic has the highest average home attendance of any Scottish club. They also had the 12th highest average league attendance out of all the football clubs in Europe in 2011. A study of stadium attendance figures from 2013 to 2018 by the '' CIES Football Observatory'' ranked Celtic at 16th in the world during that period, and their proportion of the distribution of spectators in Scotland at 36.5%, the highest of any club in the leagues examined. In October 2013, French football magazine published a list of whom they considered the 'best' football supporters in the world. Celtic fans were placed third, the only club in Britain on the list, with the magazine highlighting their rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone before the start of European ties at Celtic Park. On 23 October 2017, Celtic fans were awarded with the FIFA Fan Award for their

tifo Tifo () is the phenomenon whereby tifosi of a sports team makes a visual display of any choreographed flag, sign or banner in the stands of a stadium, mostly as part of an association football match. Tifos are most commonly seen in important ...

commemorating the 50th anniversary of the club's European cup win. The award "celebrates the best fan moment of November 2016 to August 2017".

Sectarianism

Celtic's traditional rivals are Rangers; collectively, the two clubs are known as the

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

and seen by some as the world's biggest football derby. The two have dominated Scottish football's history; between them, they have won the Scottish league championship 107 times (as of May 2022) since its inception in 1890 – all other clubs combined have won 19 championships. The two clubs are also by far the most supported in Scotland, with Celtic having the sixth highest home attendance in the UK during season 2014–15. Celtic have a historic association with the people of Ireland and Scots of Irish descent, both of whom are mainly

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

."What is being asserted is two identities: Rangers and Celtic. There are other boundaries: Protestant and Catholic / Unionist and Republican / Conservative and Socialist...." Traditionally fans of rivals Rangers came from Scottish or Northern Irish

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

backgrounds and support

Unionism in Ireland Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the United Kingdom, British Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Crown and Constitution of the United Kingdom, cons ...

. The clubs have attracted the support of opposing factions in the

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

in Northern Ireland. Some supporters use songs, chants and banners at matches to abuse or show support for the Protestant or Catholic religions and proclaim support for Northern Irish paramilitary groups such as the IRA and UVF. There have been over 400 Old Firm matches played. The games have been described as having an "atmosphere of hatred, religious tension and intimidation which continues to lead to violence in communities across Scotland." The rivalry has fuelled many assaults and even deaths on Old Firm Derby days. Admissions to hospital emergency rooms have been reported to increase ninefold over normal levels and in the period from 1996 to 2003, eight deaths in Glasgow were directly linked to Old Firm matches, and hundreds of assaults. Both sets of fans fought on the pitch after Celtic's victory in the

1980 Scottish Cup Final The 1980 Scottish Cup Final was played on 10 May 1980 at Hampden Park in Glasgow and was the final of the 95th Scottish Cup competition. Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers contested the match, which Celtic won 1–0 after extra time. Rioting af ...

at Hampden Park. There was serious fan disorder during an Old Firm match played in May 1999 at Celtic Park; missiles were thrown by Celtic fans, including one which struck referee

Hugh Dallas Hugh Dallas MBE (born 26 October 1957) is a Scottish former football referee. He officiated at two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998 and 2002; he was appointed fourth official for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final. Dallas also officiated at the 19 ...

, who needed medical treatment and a small number of fans invaded the pitch. Celtic have taken measures to reduce sectarianism. In 1996, the club launched its ''Bhoys Against Bigotry'' campaign, later followed by ''Youth Against Bigotry'' to "educate the young on having ... respect for all aspects of the community – all races, all colours, all creeds".

Irish republicanism

Some groups of Celtic fans have expressed their support for

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

and the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

by singing or chanting about them at matches. In 2008 and 2010, there were protests by groups of fans over the team wearing the poppy for

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in ...

, as the symbol is opposed by Irish Republicans owing to its association with the British military. Celtic expressed disapproval of these protests, saying they were damaging to the image of the club and its fans, and pledged to ban those involved. In 2011, UEFA and the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

investigated the club over pro-IRA chants by fans at different games. UEFA fined Celtic £12,700, while the SPL took no action, as the club had taken all reasonable action to prevent the chants.

Celtic media

In 1965, Celtic began publishing its own newspaper, ''

The Celtic View ''The Celtic View'' is the official weekly magazine of Celtic Football Club, whose headquarters are located in Glasgow, Scotland. The first publication to be fully related to the Scottish team, it is also the oldest football club magazine in t ...

'', now the oldest club magazine in football. It was the brainchild of future chairman Jack McGinn, who at the time was working in the circulation department of Beaverbrook Newspapers. McGinn himself edited the paper for the first few years, with circulation initially reaching around 26,000 copies. By 2020, it was a 72-page glossy magazine with over 6,000 weekly readers, and the top selling club magazine in the United Kingdom. In the spring of 2020, the magazine saw a temporary cease of production due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. However, in August 2021, Celtic announced the restart of the production activities for the magazine, which was turned into a 100-page, quarterly publication. From 2002, Celtic's Internet TV channel

Channel67 Celtic TV is the official Internet channel of Celtic F.C. It was a television channel until 2009 but was relaunched online, replacing Channel 67. History Launched in 2004, Celtic TV was operated by the Irish company Setanta Sports and was avail ...

(previously known as Celtic Replay) broadcast Celtic's own content worldwide and offered live match coverage to subscribers outside the UK. It also provided three online channels. In 2004, Celtic launched their own digital TV channel called

Celtic TV Celtic TV is the official Internet channel of Celtic F.C. It was a television channel until 2009 but was relaunched online, replacing Channel 67. History Launched in 2004, Celtic TV was operated by the Irish company Setanta Sports and was avail ...

, which was available in the UK through

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...

on satellite and cable platforms. Due to the collapse of Setanta in the UK in June 2009, Celtic TV stopped broadcasting, although the club hoped to find a new broadcast partner. In 2011, Celtic TV was relaunched as an online service and replaced Channel 67.

Influence on other clubs

Due to Celtic's large following, several clubs have decided to emulate or have been inspired by Celtic. As the club has a large following, especially in Northern Ireland, several clubs have been founded there by local Celtic fans. The most notable and successful was

Belfast Celtic Belfast Celtic Football Club was a football club. Founded in 1891 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club left the league for polit ...

, formed in 1891 simply as ''Celtic''. Upon incorporation as a limited company in 1901, however, the club adopted the name "Belfast Celtic", the title "Celtic Football Club Ltd" already being registered by the Glasgow club. Their home from the same year was Celtic Park on Donegall Road in west

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, known to the fans as ''Paradise''. It was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew from the Irish League in 1949. Donegal Celtic, currently playing in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League, was established in 1970, with the Celtic part being taken on due to the massive local following for Scotland's Celtic and formerly Belfast Celtic. They are nicknamed ''The Wee Hoops'' and play at Donegal Celtic Park on Suffolk Road in Belfast. A club by the name of Lurgan Celtic was originally formed in 1903, with the obvious slant of aiming towards the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

community of the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

, adopting the name and colours of the Glaswegian Celtic. The

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...

club currently plays in the NIFL Championship. In the Republic of Ireland, both Tuam Celtic A.F.C. and

Castlebar Celtic F.C. Castlebar Celtic F.C. ( ga, Cumann Peile Caisleán an Bharraigh Ceiltigh) is an Irish association football club based in Castlebar, County Mayo. They currently play in the Mayo Association Football League. They have previously fielded teams in ...

play at grounds called Celtic Park. Throughout Scotland and England, other clubs have been named after and adopted Celtic's kit. These include the now defunct Scottish club

Blantyre Celtic F.C. Blantyre Celtic Football Club were a Scottish football club that played under the auspices of the Scottish Junior Football Association. Formed in 1914 as Blantyre United, they changed their name to Blantyre Celtic two years later. Their home gr ...

; Irish club Listowel Celtic F.C.; and English lower-league clubs Cleator Moor Celtic F.C., which was founded in 1908–09 by Irish immigrants employed in the local iron ore mines,

Celtic Nation F.C. Celtic Nation Football Club (/ˈkɛltɪk ˈneɪʃən/) was an English association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria. The club were members of Division One of the Northern League and played at Gillford Park. History The club was esta ...

(now defunct) and West Allotment Celtic F.C. Somerset club

Yeovil Town F.C. Yeovil Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Yeovil, Somerset, England. The team competes in the , the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club's home ground is Huish Park, built i ...

, who traditionally wore an all-green shirt, modified their uniform to emulate Celtic's, inspired by the Scottish club's 2003

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

run. Outside the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

, South African club Bloemfontein Celtic F.C., one of the most popular club in the country with a large fan base in the Free State, is also named after Celtic F.C. Founded in 1969 as ''Mangaung United'', in 1984, the then owner Molemela took over the club and changed the name to ''Bloemfontein Celtic''. Based in Bloemfontein, they play in the Premier Soccer League. In the United States of America, Hurricanes F.C. of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

rebranded as

Celtic FC America Celtic FC America is an American soccer club based in Houston, Texas. Originally known as Houston Hurricanes FC, the club was established in December 1992 when owner Brendan Keyes announced he was moving his Galveston Pirate SC franchise to Ho ...

in 2019 and play in the Texas Premier Soccer League.

Celtic and charity

Celtic was initially founded to raise money for the poor in the East End of Glasgow and the club still retain strong charitable traditions today. In 1995 the Celtic Charity Fund was formed with the aim of "revitalising Celtic's charitable traditions" and by September 2013 had raised over £5 million. The Charity Fund has since then merged with the Celtic Foundation, forming the Celtic FC Foundation, and continues to raise money for local, national and international causes. On 9 August 2011 Celtic held a testimonial match in honour of former player John Kennedy. Due to the humanitarian crisis in East Africa, the entire proceeds were donated to

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

. An estimated £300,000 was raised. Celtic hold an annual charity fashion show at Celtic Park. In 2011 the main beneficiaries were Breast Cancer Care Scotland.

Yorkhill Hospital The West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital is a healthcare facility in Yorkhill, Glasgow. The new ambulatory care facility was created in December 2015 to house the remaining outpatient services and the minor injury unit previously housed at the ...

is another charity with whom Celtic are affiliated and in December 2011 the club donated £3000 to it. Chief Executive

Peter Lawwell Peter Lawwell (born 27 May 1959) is the former chief executive of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. He retired in June 2021 from his role as CEO. He was announced as successor to current Celtic chairman Ian Bankier on 2nd December 2022 and will ...

said that; "Celtic has always been much more than a football club and it is important that, at all times we play an important role in the wider community. The club is delighted to have enjoyed such a long and positive connection with Yorkhill Hospital."

Ownership and finances

Private company

Celtic were formed in 1887, and in 1897 the club became a

Private Limited Company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the ''LLC'' in the United St ...

with a nominal share capital of 5000 shares at £1 each. The following year a further share issue of 5000 £1 shares was created to raise more capital. The largest number of shares held were by businessmen from the East End of Glasgow, notably James Grant, an Irish publican and engineer, James Kelly, one of the club's original players turned publican, and John Glass, a builder and driving force in the early years of the club. His shares, upon his death in 1906, passed on to Thomas White. The Grant, Kelly and White families' shareholdings dominated ownership of the club throughout the 20th century. James Kelly footballer in 1892

The late 1940s saw Robert Kelly, son of James Kelly, become chairman of the club after having been a director since 1931. Desmond White also joined the board around this time, upon the death of his father Thomas White. By the 1950s, a significant number of shares in the club had passed to Neil and Felicia Grant, who lived in

Toomebridge Toome or Toomebridge () is a small village and townland on the northwest corner of Lough Neagh in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies in the civil parish of Duneane in the former barony of Toome Upper, and is in the Antrim and Newtow ...

,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population ...

. These shares accounted for more than a sixth of the club's total issue. Club chairman Robert Kelly's own family share-holding was of a similar size, and he used his close relationship with the Toomebridge Grants to ensure his power base at Celtic was unchallengeable. When Neil Grant died in the early 1960s, his shareholding passed to his sister Felicia, leaving her as the largest share-holder in Celtic. This gave rise to the myth among Celtic supporters of the "old lady in Ireland" who supposedly had the ultimate say in the running of the club. Celtic's board of directors had a reputation of being miserly and authoritarian. In particular they were known for frequently selling their top players and not paying their staff enough; they were also seen as lacking ambition, which caused friction with several managers.

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

's tenure as manager is generally considered a period of underachievement, but with Chairman Robert Kelly's domineering influence. many have questioned how much authority McGrory ever had in team selection. Even Jock Stein's time as manager ended on a sour note when he was offered a place on the Celtic board, but in a role involving ticket sales. Stein felt that this was demeaning, stating he was "a football man, not a ticket salesman". He declined this offer and decided to stay in football management, joining Leeds United instead. Billy McNeill won a trophy in each of his five seasons as manager, but was still paid less than the managers of Rangers,

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

and Dundee United. He left the club in June 1983 after his request for a contract and pay rise was publicly rebuffed by the board. McNeill moved on to manage

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, stating that to remain at Celtic would have been humiliating. McNeill's successor,

Davie Hay David Hay (born 29 January 1948) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He broke into the Celtic team in the late 1960s, as one of a generation of players who continued a highly successful era for the club. A contract dispute between ...

, also had his difficulties with the Celtic board. When trying to sign players in 1987 to strengthen his squad to compete with high-spending Rangers, the board refused to pay for them; chairman Jack McGinn was quoted as saying that if Hay wanted these players, "he will have to pay for them himself". By the end of the 1980s the Celtic board consisted of chairman McGinn and directors Kevin Kelly, Chris White, Tom Grant and Jimmy Farrell. Neither McGinn nor Farrell were members of the traditional family dynasties at Celtic. Farrell was a partner in the Shaughnessy law firm that had long-standing connections with Celtic, and was invited to become a director in 1964. McGinn had set up ''

The Celtic View ''The Celtic View'' is the official weekly magazine of Celtic Football Club, whose headquarters are located in Glasgow, Scotland. The first publication to be fully related to the Scottish team, it is also the oldest football club magazine in t ...

'' in the 1960s and later became the club's commercial manager. He was given a seat on the board and became chairman in 1986. In May 1990 the former Lord Provost of Glasgow, Michael Kelly, and property developer Brian Dempsey were invited to join the Celtic board. Dempsey did not last long however, as a dispute about a proposed relocation to Robroyston resulted in him being voted off the board five months later.

McCann takeover and transition to plc

Throughout the 1960s and 70s Celtic had been one of the strongest clubs in Europe. However, the directors failed to accompany the wave of economic development facing football in the 1980s, although the club continued to remain successful on the field, albeit limited to the domestic scene in Scotland. In 1989, the club's annual budget was £6.4 million, about a third as much as

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, with a debt of around 40% and on-field success deteriorating. In the early 1990s the situation began to worsen as playing success declined dramatically and the club slipped further into debt. In 1993 fans began organising pressure groups to protest against the board, one of the most prominent being "Celts for Change". They supported a takeover bid led by Canadian-based businessman Fergus McCann and former director Brian Dempsey. Football writer

Jim Traynor James Traynor (born 27 September 1953) is a Scottish former sports journalist and former Director of Communications at Rangers F.C. Prior to joining the Glasgow club, Traynor was employed by the Scottish newspaper the '' Daily Record''. He was al ...

described McCann's attempt to buy the club as "good against evil". Despite declining attendances and increasing unrest amongst supporters, the Kelly, White and Grant family groupings continued to guard their control of Celtic. On 4 March 1994, McCann bought Celtic for £9 million, finally wresting control from the family dynasties that had run the club for almost 100 years. When he bought the club it was reported to be within 24 hours of entering receivership due to exceeding a £5 million overdraft with the Bank of Scotland. He turned Celtic into a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

through a share issue which raised over £14 million, the most successful share issue in British football history. He also oversaw the building of a new stadium, the 60,000 seater Celtic Park, which cost £40 million and at the time was Britain's largest club stadium. This allowed Celtic to progress as a club because over £20 million was being raised each year from season ticket sales. McCann had maintained that he would only be at Celtic for five years and in September 1999 he announced that his 50.3% stake in Celtic was for sale. McCann had wanted the ownership of Celtic to be spread as widely as possible and gave first preference to existing shareholders and season-ticket holders, to prevent a new consortium taking over the club. 14.4 million shares were sold by McCann at a value of 280 pence each. McCann made £40 million out of this, meaning he left Celtic with a £31 million profit. During his tenure, turnover at Celtic rose by 385% to £33.8m and operating profits rose from £282,000 to £6.7m. McCann was often criticised during his time at Celtic and many people disagreed with him over building a stadium which they thought Celtic could not fill, not investing enough in the squad and being overly focused on finance. However, McCann was responsible for the financial recovery of the club and for providing a very good platform for it to build on. After he left Celtic, the club were able to invest in players and achieved much success such as winning the treble in 2000–01 and reaching the

2003 UEFA Cup Final The 2003 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 2003 between Celtic of Scotland and Porto of Portugal. Porto won the match 3–2 in extra time thanks to a goal from Derlei. This was also the first game to use the silver goal rule, although it di ...

. After McCann's exit, Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond was left as the majority shareholder. He purchased 2.8 million of McCann's shares to increase his stake in the club from 13% to 20%. In 2005, Celtic issued a share offer designed to raise £15 million for the club; 50 million new shares were made available priced at 30p each. It was also revealed that majority shareholder Desmond would buy around £10 million worth of the shares. £10 million of the money raised was for building a new training centre and youth academy, expanding the club's global scouting network and investing in coaching and player development programmes. The rest of the money was to be used to reduce debt. Building a youth academy was important for Celtic to surpass both Hearts and Rangers who had superior youth facilities at the time. The share issue was a success and Celtic had more applicants than shares available, The new

Lennoxtown training centre Lennoxtown Training Centre is Celtic F.C.'s training centre, located at Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire in Scotland. The complex houses the club's training and educational facilities. Background Lennoxtown was designed to replace Celtic's former ...

was opened in October 2007. Celtic have been ranked in the Deloitte Football Money League six times. This lists the top 20 football clubs in the world according to revenue. They were ranked between 2002 ( 2000–01 season), 2006 ( 2004–05 season) and 2008 ( 2006–07 season). Celtic's financial results for 2011 showed that the club's debt had been reduced from £5.5 million to £500,000 and that a pre-tax profit of £100,000 had been achieved, compared with a loss of over £2 million the previous year. Turnover also decreased by 15% from £63 million to £52 million. In May 2012, Celtic were rated 37th in Brand Finance's annual valuation of the world's biggest football clubs. Celtic's brand was valued at $64 million (£40.7 million), $15 million more than the previous year. It was the first time a Scottish club had been ranked in the top 50. Matt Hannagan, Sports Brand Valuation Analyst at Brand Finance, said that Celtic were constrained by the amount of money they got from the SPL and that if they were in the Premiership then, due to their large fan base, they could be in the top 10 clubs in the world. Later that month David Low, the financial consultant who advised Fergus McCann on his takeover of Celtic in 1994, said that Celtic's 'enterprise value' (how much it would cost to buy the club) was £52 million.

Players

First-team squad

Out on loan

Academy squads

''For more details on the academy squads, see Celtic F.C. B Team and Academy.''

Women's team

Celtic have a pathway for female players, from eleven years old upwards. In 2007 the club launched their women's first team, sometimes known as Celtic Women. The women's team reached the

Scottish Women's Cup The Scottish Women's Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71, the competition is owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an affiliated body of the Scottish Football Assoc ...

Final in their first season, and won their first trophy in 2010, the Scottish Women's Premier League Cup. In December 2018 they announced a move to full-time training, becoming the first

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and sk ...

women's football team in Scotland.

Former players

For further information, see List of Celtic F.C. players for players with over 100 appearances or other stated notability,

List of Celtic F.C. international footballers This is a list of players, past and present, who have been capped by their country in international football ''whilst playing'' for Celtic Football Club. As well as Scotland, 38 other nations have fielded Celtic players in their international sid ...

and Celtic FC players for a general list of ex-players.

Club captains

For further information, see Celtic club captains

Greatest ever team

In 2002 the greatest ever Celtic team was voted by supporters: * Ronnie Simpson *

Danny McGrain Daniel Fergus McGrain (born 1 May 1950) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Hamilton Academical and the Scotland national team as a right back. McGrain is regarded as one of Scotland's greatest players and t ...

* Tommy Gemmell *

Bobby Murdoch Robert White Murdoch (17 August 1944 – 15 May 2001) was a Scottish professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland. Murdoch was one of the Lisbon Lions, the Celtic team who won the European Cup in 1967. He later ma ...

* Paul McStay * Billy McNeill – Voted Celtic's greatest ever captain * Bertie Auld * Jimmy Johnstone – Voted Celtic's greatest ever player * Bobby Lennox *

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for th ...

* Henrik Larsson – Voted Celtic's greatest ever foreign player

Club officials

Board of directors

Management

For Celtic's B Team and youth management, see

Celtic F.C. Under-20s and Academy Celtic B is the reserve team of Celtic Football Club. They are based in Airdrie and compete in the Lowland League. Celtic have run a reserve side since the early days of the club, comprising a combination of emerging youth players and first-t ...

.

Managerial history

Halls of Fame

Scotland Football Hall of Fame

As of 1 June 2020, 27 Celtic players and managers have entered the Scottish Football Hall of Fame: * Roy Aitken * Bertie Auld *

Stevie Chalmers Thomas Stephen Chalmers (26 December 1935 – 29 April 2019) was a Scottish footballer who played as a centre-forward and spent the majority of his career with Celtic. He is the club's fifth-highest goalscorer with 236 goals and is consid ...

* John Clark * Jim Craig *

Paddy Crerand Paddy may refer to: People *Paddy (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname *An ethnic slur for an Irishman Birds *Paddy (pigeon), a Second World War carrier pigeon * Snowy sheathbill or paddy, a bird species *Black-faced s ...

*

Sir Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for the ...

MBE * Jimmy Delaney * Bobby Evans * Tommy Gemmell * Mo Johnston * Jimmy Johnstone *

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...

* Henrik Larsson * Bobby Lennox * Willie Maley *

Danny McGrain Daniel Fergus McGrain (born 1 May 1950) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Hamilton Academical and the Scotland national team as a right back. McGrain is regarded as one of Scotland's greatest players and t ...

*

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

* Billy McNeill * Paul McStay *

Bobby Murdoch Robert White Murdoch (17 August 1944 – 15 May 2001) was a Scottish professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland. Murdoch was one of the Lisbon Lions, the Celtic team who won the European Cup in 1967. He later ma ...

* Charlie Nicholas * Ronnie Simpson * Jock Stein CBE *

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Co ...

* John Thomson *

Willie Wallace William Semple Brown Wallace (born 23 June 1940) is a Scottish former football player and coach. He won the European Cup with Celtic in 1967 along with several domestic honours. His other clubs included Stenhousemuir, Raith Rovers, Heart of M ...

Scotland Roll of Honour

The Scotland national football team roll of honour recognises players who have gained 50 or more international caps for Scotland. Inductees to have played for Celtic are: * Roy Aitken (50) * Tom Boyd (66) * Scott Brown (52) *

Gary Caldwell Gary Caldwell (born 12 April 1982) is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach who is the current manager of Exeter City. Caldwell played for Newcastle United, Darlington, Coventry City, Derby County, Hibernian, Celtic, Wigan Athl ...

(17) * John Collins (32) *

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for th ...

MBE (47) * Craig Gordon (14) *

Danny McGrain Daniel Fergus McGrain (born 1 May 1950) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Hamilton Academical and the Scotland national team as a right back. McGrain is regarded as one of Scotland's greatest players and t ...

MBE (62) * Paul McStay (76) * Kenny Miller (7) Numbers in brackets indicate the number of caps the above players won whilst at Celtic.

Scottish Sports Hall of Fame

In the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, five Celtic players have been selected, they are: * Sir

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for th ...

MBE * Jimmy Johnstone *

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

* Billy McNeill MBE * Jock Stein CBE

Honours

Domestic honours

*

Scottish League Championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

: 52 :: 1892–93, 1893–94, 1895–96, 1897–98,

1904–05 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

,

1905–06 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

,

1906–07 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1909–10, 1913–14, 1914–15, 1915–16, 1916–17, 1918–19, 1921–22, 1925–26, 1935–36, 1937–38, 1953–54, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2021–22 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1891–92, 1898–99, 1899–1900,

1903–04 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

,

1906–07 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, 1907–08, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1913–14, 1922–23, 1924–25, 1926–27, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1936–37, 1950–51, 1953–54, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1994–95, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

: 20 :: 1956–57, 1957–58, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1974–75, 1982–83, 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2021–22

Continental honours

*

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

** Winners: 1966–67 ** Runners-up: 1969–70 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

** Runners-up: 2002–03 * Intercontinental Cup ** Runners-up: 1967

Other awards

*

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award The BBC Sports Team of the Year Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. Currently, the award is given " r the team in an individual sport or sporting discipline that has achieved ...

: 1 :: 1967 *

France Football European Team of the Year The ''France Football'' European Team of the Year (french: Challenge Européen de Football), also known as European Challenge Interclubs (), was an association football award conferred by French sports magazine ''France Football'' with the sponsor ...

: 1 :: 1970 *

FIFA Fair Play Award The FIFA Fair Play Award is a FIFA recognition of exemplary behaviour that promotes the spirit of fair play and compassion in :association football around the world. First awarded in 1987, it has been presented to individuals (including posthu ...

: 1 :: 2003¹ * UEFA Fair Play Award: 1 :: 2003¹ * FIFA Fan Award: 1 :: 2017¹ ¹ Awarded to the fans of Celtic.

Trebles

*League Title, Scottish Cup, League Cup: 7 :: 1966–67, 1968–69, 2000–01, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20

Doubles

*League Title and Scottish Cup: 12 ::

1906–07 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, 1907–08, 1913–14, 1953–54, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1987–88, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2012–13 *League Title and League Cup: 7 :: 1965–66, 1967–68, 1969–70, 1997–98, 2005–06, 2014–15, 2021–22 *Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup: 1 :: 1974–75

Records

Club records

* The

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into ...

was attended by a crowd of 147,365 at Hampden Park in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

, which remains a world record gate for a national cup final, and also the highest attendance for a club football match in Europe. * Highest attendance for a European club competition match: 136,505 against Leeds United in the European Cup semi-final at Hampden Park (15 April 1970). * Record home attendance: 83,500 against Rangers on 1 January 1938. A 3–0 victory for Celtic. * UK record for an unbeaten run in domestic professional football: 69 games (60 won, 9 drawn), from 15 May 2016 until 17 December 2017 – a total of 582 days in all. * SPL record for an unbeaten run of home matches: 77 games, from 2001 to 2004. * 14 consecutive League Cup final appearances, from season 1964–65 to 1977–78 inclusive, a world record for successive appearances in the final of a major football competition. * World record for total number of goals scored in a season (competitive games only): 196 (season 1966–67). * Most goals scored in one Scottish top-flight league match by one player: eight goals by

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

against

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Acco ...

in 9–0 win on 14 January 1928. * Highest score in a domestic British cup final: Celtic 7–1 Rangers (

1957 Scottish League Cup Final The 1957 Scottish League Cup Final was the final of the 1957–58 Scottish League Cup. The football match was played on 19 October 1957 at Hampden Park, in which Celtic beat rivals Rangers in a record 7–1 victory. The final was nicknamed "Ha ...

). * Fastest hat-trick in European Club Football: Mark Burchill against Jeunesse Esch in 2000; 3 minutes (between twelfth minute and fifteenth minute), a record at the time. * Earliest Scottish Premiership title won: Won with eight games remaining in 2017, against Heart of Midlothian on 2 April 2017. * Biggest margin of victory in the SPL: 9–0 against Aberdeen, 6 November 2010. * Biggest margin of victory in the Scottish Premiership: 9–0 against Dundee United, 28 August 2022. * Celtic and Hibernian hold the record for the largest transfer fee between two Scottish clubs ( Scott Brown in May 2007). * Most expensive export from Scottish football:

Kieran Tierney Kieran Tierney (born 5 June 1997) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Premier League club Arsenal and the Scotland national team. Tierney came through the Celtic youth system and made his first te ...

to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

(August 2019). * First weekly football club publication in the UK: ''

The Celtic View ''The Celtic View'' is the official weekly magazine of Celtic Football Club, whose headquarters are located in Glasgow, Scotland. The first publication to be fully related to the Scottish team, it is also the oldest football club magazine in t ...

''. * First European club to field a player from the Indian sub-continent: Mohammed Salim. * Gil Heron, who signed for Celtic in 1951, was the first black person to play professionally in Scotland; his son

Gil Scott-Heron Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Ja ...

rose to prominence in the 1970s as a hugely influential jazz and soul musician.

Individual records

* Record appearances (all competitions): Billy McNeill, 822 from 1957 to 1975 * Record appearances (League): Alec McNair, 583 from 1904 to 1925 * Most capped player for Scotland: 102 (47 whilst at Celtic),

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for th ...

* Most international caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

while a Celtic player: 76, Paul McStay * Most caps won whilst at Celtic: 80, Pat Bonner * Record scorer: Jimmy McGrory, 522 (1922/23 – 1937/38) * Record scorer in league: Jimmy McGrory, 396 * Most goals in a season (all competitions):

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

, 62 (1927/28) (47 in League, 15 in Cup competitions) * Most goals in a season (league only):

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Worl ...

, 50 (1935/36)

Club partners

As of 12 June 2022, Celtic has partnerships with: *

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacture ...

* Dafabet * Magners * Intelligent Car Leasing * JD Sports *

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...

* Powerade *

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

* BT Sport * Eden Mill *

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

* Eleven Sports Media * Forbes on the Square * Celtic Compare *

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...

*

Clyde 1 Clyde 1 is an Independent Local Radio station based in Glasgow, Scotland, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Glasgow and West Central Scotland. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audie ...

* Go Radio * Nirvana Europe * Primal Strength * Homeheat * Utilita Energy * Be Cordial Hotels * University of the West of Scotland * Catapult Sports * My Personal English Coach * Vitality * Soccer Supplement * Squalk * The Turmeric Co. * UFL * Indigo Unified Communications * Sorare

Footnotes

References

; Sources * * *

External links

*
Club information
at ''fitbastats.com'' {{Authority control 1888 establishments in Scotland

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

Companies based in Glasgow Culture in Glasgow Football clubs in Scotland Publicly traded sports companies Irish diaspora sports clubs in Scotland Scottish Cup winners Scottish League Cup winners UEFA Champions League winning clubs Scottish Football League founder members Scottish Football League teams Scottish Premier League teams Scottish Professional Football League teams Football clubs in Glasgow Unrelegated association football clubs