Founded in February 2003, when a meeting was arranged by Alan Dunn with a group of expats: Bob McEwan, Craig Dunn, Gerry Kerr, Bob Stevenson, and John Clearly. Some are still there after 20 or more years.
The theme was to get like-minded people together and form a CSC. There was a lot of interest in supporting local charities, which is a key principle of the Celtic family: to help others who are less fortunate.
They have moved premises a few times, with most of them changing names. Previous bases include The Sports Bar and Mexicana Bar. Their current home is Shakespeare’s Bar on Ali Zadeh St., where they have a private room upstairs, which has now been their home for the last five years.
Peter Lawwell and a few of the board members visited them in 2015, when Qarabag FK played Celtic. Willie McStay and Barry Robson have also paid them a visit. Glasgow circuit musician Charlie Devlin came over for a couple of events to add Celtic music to the atmosphere.
There have been lots of group tours, including Barcelona, Paris, Portugal, Italy, and some local regions of Russia and Turkey, but their best memory would be Seville.
When the membership level was high, circa 70–100 members in the early days, the club gave over $100,000 to soup kitchens and a local Catholic chapel called The Immaculate Conception, where they installed the new air conditioning system.
They focus on supporting the development of a local children’s football club and the local orphanages. Their favourite orphanage was Musvig, which catered for disabled children. Recently, they have supported the Celtic Foundation through their member, Fintan Gormley.
They have never managed a CSC trip to Glasgow, but they did run buses to take the Celtic supporters to the Qarabag FK game. The club membership numbers fluctuate according to the oil and gas business in Azerbaijan. Their membership is now circa 25–30 people.
There is also a great camaraderie with the local Rangers club, with whom they play a golf tournament twice a year to coincide with the Celtic v theRangers game. As you would expect, they are ahead in this competition.
An extract from Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs by David McIntyre (Celtic Bars). Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs is out now and available in print and kindle versions HERE.
More to follow from Football Without Fans on The Celtic Star, the Celtic supporters website. Will it be your CSC that’s featured?
You can order a copy in print or kindle from Amazon where ever you are in the world. Order your copy HERE
