The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic, is a professional football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the Irish–Scots population in the city's East End area. They played their first match in May 1888, a friendly match against Rangers which Celtic won 5–2. Celtic established themselves within Scottish football, winning six successive league titles during the first decade of the 20th century. The club enjoyed their greatest successes during the 1960s and 70s under Jock Stein, when they won nine consecutive league titles and the 1967 European Cup. Celtic have played in green and white throughout their history, adopting in 1903 the hoops that have been used ever since.
William McNeill was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lions' to their European Cup victory in 1967 and later spent two spells as the club's manager. As a player and manager, he won 31 major trophies with Celtic.
George MacDonald Fraser was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven novels and one short-story collection in the Flashman series of novels, as well as non-fiction, short stories, novels and screenplays—including those for the James Bond film Octopussy, The Three Musketeers and an adaptation of his own novel Royal Flash.
John Stein was a Scottish football player and manager. He was the first manager of a club from a Northern European country to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967. Stein also guided Celtic to nine successive Scottish League championships between 1966 and 1974.
Daniel Fergus McGrain 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 throughout the 1970s and 80s as one of the best full backs in world football; sports writer Hugh McIlvanney commented, "Anybody who saw him at his best had the unmistakable impression of watching a great player, probably one who had no superior anywhere in the world."
Charles Nicholas is a Scottish former professional footballer. A striker, Nicholas is best known for his spells at Celtic and Arsenal. He won 20 international caps for Scotland, including playing at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
Celtic Football Club was constituted in 1888 with the purpose of creating a club for Irish Immigrants. Celtic play home games at Celtic Park, having moved there from their original ground in 1892. From 1887-1994, Celtic quickly established itself as a dominant force in Scottish football, winning six successive league titles during the first decade of the 20th century. A fierce rivalry developed with Rangers, and the two clubs became known as the Old Firm.
Thomas Gemmell was a Scottish football player and manager. Although right-footed, he excelled as a left-sided fullback and had powerful shooting ability. Gemmell is best known as one of the Celtic side who won the 1966–67 European Cup; he scored the first Celtic goal in the final. Gemmell played 18 times for Scotland, and also played for Nottingham Forest, Miami Toros and Dundee. After retiring as a player in 1977, Gemmell managed Dundee and Albion Rovers.
William McClure Johnston is a Scottish former professional footballer. He played over 600 games in a 20 year senior playing career. His 5 Rangers major trophy wins included him scoring 2 goals when winning the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup final. Johnston also played for Hakoah Sydney, West Bromwich Albion, Vancouver Whitecaps, Birmingham City, Heart of Midlothian, South China AA and East Fife. With the Whitecaps he was part of the Soccer Bowl '79 winning team. His 22 full Scotland caps included against Peru at the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He was sent home from the competition early after subsequently testing positive for Reactivan in that game.
Joseph Miller is a Scottish retired footballer and a former manager of Scottish Football League club Clyde.
Francis Peter McGarvey was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a forward, mostly for Celtic and St Mirren. He also played seven times in international matches for Scotland.
Thomas Ian McAdam is a Scottish former footballer who played for a number of British clubs, spending around half of his career with Celtic. He began as a forward but was later converted to a defender, where he played for the majority of his career.
David Alexander Provan is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Kilmarnock, Celtic and Scotland. While playing for Celtic, Provan won four Premier Division medals, two Scottish Cups and one League Cup.
The 1967 Intercontinental Cup was a football tie held over three legs in 1967 between the winners of the 1966–67 European Cup, The Celtic Football Club from Scotland, and Racing Club from Argentina, winners of the 1967 Copa Libertadores.
Celtic competed for five trophies in the 1966–67 season and the club won all of them: the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup, and the European Cup, and completed the only ever European Quintuple. However, their European Cup victory from this season qualified them for the World Championship the following season, which they went on to lose in a playoff to Racing. Over the course of this season, Celtic scored a world record 196 goals in the major competitions they took part in.
The 1971 Ibrox disaster, also known as the Second Ibrox Disaster, was a crush among the crowd at an Old Firm football game, which led to 66 deaths and more than 200 injuries. It happened on 2 January 1971 in an exit stairway at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the worst football disaster until the Bradford City stadium fire in Bradford, England, in 1985. This was followed by 97 deaths in the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, England, in 1989.
Paul Joseph McGugan is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a central defender for Celtic, Barnsley and Chesterfield.
Between the 1930s and 1970s, the Scottish football club Rangers had an unwritten rule whereby the club would not knowingly sign any player who was a Roman Catholic. This was because Rangers were viewed as a Protestant, Unionist club, in contrast to their Old Firm rivals, Celtic who were viewed as an Irish Catholic club, although Celtic never adopted a similar signing policy. Rangers' policy was ended in 1989 when they signed ex-Celtic striker Mo Johnston, under manager Graeme Souness.
The Aberdeen–Rangers rivalry refers to football matches and related activity involving the Scottish football clubs Aberdeen and Rangers.
