EMOTIONALLY CELTIC

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A sheriff granted the motion for ”absolvitor”, this means the outcome of the court is in favour of Celtic. He was thus easy to fall out with and at one point the players organised a boycott after a particular rant in one of his columns, which lasted three weeks which required the intervention of Tommy Burns to calm things down. None of the players would talk to him and made production of the Celtic View difficult, the particular 'offensive' headline being something like "not fit to wear the hoops". This is obviously a tad awkward when you are writing for an in-house paper. Similar situations occurred through the Venglos season and into John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish's time in charge at the club. Launched in March 2002 'The Alternative View' was Matt McGlone's (Ex- Once A Tim editor and member of Celts For Change) first project since his departure from the staff of the Celtic View. So why did they do it all and carry on with all that it entailed? The members were doing it simply for their love of the club and their fellow fans on the terracing. The club has an ethos and broad community that no other club has, and that is what fuelled them to push for change.

In May 2013, with renovations being carried out around Celtic Park in preparation for the Commonwealth Games of 2014, 'The Celts for Change' group was officially honoured with a plaque at Celtic Park. This is situated in front of the Jimmy Johnstone Statue at the front end of Celtic Park, and is a fitting tribute to the main people behind the group. Belated some may say but maybe time needs to pass before honouring people in this way.McGlone, editor of fanzine The Alternative View and author of Emotionally Celtic, always maintained the reason for the legal battle is to ensure better safety measures at Celtic Park and it wasn't about money. Later he was invited by Fergus to apply his energies in a similar manner but from within by doing a large column in the Celtic View taking a fan's eye view. Matt was a lifetime celtaholic who would have found it impossible to refuse such an offer. Problem is that he was given a lot of free reign, and the self-admittedly strong opinionated and blunt Matt McGlone created a lot of friction within Celtic (with players and staff) on some his views from the columns. That came at a time when the defendant welcomed his son into the world. He was just two-weeks-old, a challenging time.

Unsung Heroes A group of unsung heroes (and fans) who helped to save Celtic in the 90s beyond what could ever be asked of them... If you create something from the heart, then you will always get a result," he said. "That´s what this group did and there has been a massive change in this club from 1994 and has been carried on. With the club's reputation at its lowest both on-field and off-field, the prime aim became the removal of the incumbents on the board and a push to ditch the "Biscuit Tin" mentality amongst its management. Amongst the doom and gloom of the barren years (1989-1995), the mood of the Celtic support had sunk so low that apathy had become deeply embedded, such that attempting to generate any energy or enthusiasm was likely to fail. The court heard McGlone would suffer further bereavement in the years to follow where he felt he was “losing everybody in his life”.He was there at the meetings and took pride of place amongst the victors when the board was ousted, but even before then his story saw him involved in some interesting episodes: That´s here no matter who comes and goes. To organise this is a fantastic and generous act, and it´s really fitting 20 years after it was formed. It´s very humbling. We could never have dreamed, 20 years ago, of having the club we have just now."