Celtic, usually known as Celtic Football Club (Celtic FC), is a giant soccer team from Glasgow, Scotland. Celtic FC shares a fierce rivalry with the down-river theRangers, who are considered to be sectarian. Their supporters hatred of Celtic FC (and its supporters) is a result of Celtic’s strong links to Ireland and being widely supported by Catholics, and Rangers are Protestant.
Celtic, though has always been a club open to all while Rangers FC (now defunct) had a sectarian policy for over a century where they refused to sign any Roman Catholic players. That ended on 1989 when they signed Maurice Johnston from under the noses of Celtic with their manager at the time Graeme Souness admitting that the signing was done to damage Celtic.
The Scottish Champions is dubbed “the Bhoys,” and it is said that the “h” was to depict an Irish pronunciation of the word boys phonetically. Celtic has a rich and unbroken history and have enjoyed a long period of domination of the Scottish Premiership winning ten of the last eleven titles.
The Early History of Celtic FC
Celtic FC has a long and illustrious history of achievement and has been identified as the leading Scottish football club for over a century. It’s indisputable that Celtic FC will always come to mind whenever the Scottish Premiership is mentioned.
Celtic FC’s first meeting was in 1887 at St. Mary’s Church Hall, Glasgow. Celtic (pronounced Seltik) was started by the Marist Brother Walfrid (Irish) to help raise money to help feed the children of Irish immigrants in Glasgow’s East End suffering from extreme poverty. The club was also a symbol of respect for Scottish and Irish heritage.
Despite being established in 1887, Bhoys only had a first professional game in 1888 against their main rival Rangers. In that friendly match, Celtic FC (the green and white) beat Rangers (5–2). Celtic would later win six successive Scottish Premiership titles between 1900 and 1910, rapidly becoming the force to reckon with in Scottish football.
The Celtic team initially wore a white shirt marked with a green collar, black shorts, and bright green socks. The club’s initial badge was a simple red oval-shaped crest with a green cross. Celtic FC’s famous green and white hooped uniforms didn’t exist until 1903. And in 1977, they ultimately adopted the club symbol on their current shirts after flaunting other emblems of the four-leaf clover.
Initially, Celtic FC, popularly called “the Bould Bhoys,” came from a postcard from the early 1900s. The extra h is a nod to the Gaelic language, where the letter h is often written with the letter b.
The Traditions of Celtic FC
Celtic FC’s home stadium is in Glasgow, Celtic Park, which is referred to by the Celtic support as Paradise and is situated in the Parkhead area of the city’s East End. Celtic Park stadium can hold up to 60,411 people, making it the largest stadium in Scotland and the eighth largest in the UK. Celtic Park is one of the most passionate fans in Britain and Europe.
Celtic FC’s The Celtic View was the maiden club newspaper in Britain, first published in August 1965. This publication’s founder, Jack McGinn, started the weekly newspaper with just four pages. The Celtic View became the pioneer for club journalism in Britain, and most big clubs followed its lead.
The history of Celtic Fc cannot be complete without mentioning their long-time Ibrox rivals, against Rangers FC until its liquidation in 2012 and subsequently against the new club theRangers founded by Charles Green the following season. The two share a rich history of intense competition and have dominated the Scottish Premiership for an extended period. A match between the Celtic and Rangers FC was dubbed the “Old Firm” whereas since the arrival of the current club playing out of Ibrox, those matches are now properly referred to as The Glasgow Derby and is still seen as one of the biggest football derbies worldwide.
Until 2012 Celtic and Rangers FC were always the top clubs in the history of Scottish football and that rivalry continues with the new club playing out of Ibrox. Since the league started, these three clubs have won 101 Scottish Premiership titles. Other teams in Scotland have won only 19 titles. The Scottish Premiership is one of the most interesting leagues worldwide and features virtual sports betting.
Virtual sports betting, a software simulation of games, is used by reputable betting sites like Parimatch to enable users to bet more often.
Celtic FC – Club Success
The club (Celtic FC) has won the Scottish Premiership championships fifty-two times (52). Furthermore, you can accurately gauge the level of success for Scotland’s most illustrious football club by adding 20 Scottish League Cups and 40 Scottish Cup titles to the Bhoys trophy cabinet.
The most notable difference between Celtic FC was after it became the first British club to win the European Championship in 1967. What’s more, Celtic FC is the first of only two clubs to win Europe with an all-homegrown squad, thanks to an extraordinary run academy under Jock Stein.
Every player on the 1967–68 lineup was born within a radius of 30-mile from Celtic Park, the team’s home field in Glasgow. The “golden years” of 1967–1968 saw Celtic win the Scottish League Championship, Scottish Cup, League Cup, and Glasgow Cup, making it their most successful season.
Celtic only missed a second European Cup win by a whisker in 1970 after being defeated in the final in extra-time and 2003 UEFA Cup Final the same thing happened. According to reports, 80,000 Celtic supporters flocked to Seville for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final.
Final Thought
Without a doubt, Celtic FC is Scotland’s most successful club of all time. Under Brendan Rodgers, the Bhoys won their seventh straight championship in the 2017–18 season, and their dominance has continued under manager Neil Lennon who led Celtic to a second nine in a row, the first having being achieved by Jock Stein between 1965 and 1974.
After losing a title to theRangers during the Covid lockdown season, Celtic looked to Australian manager Ange Postecoglou who delivered both the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Premiership title in his first season in Paradise. As a result, you can always place your bet on them on Parimatch with confidence that they’ll win.
