Ever wondered how a Celtic Supporters Club comes into existence? They can be found all around the world and the chances are if you go somewhere where there’s not a CSC in existence, someone will be trying to set one up!
Auckland must be one of the further away CSCs from Celtic Park yet since its foundation in the early 1983 it’s had to overcome incredible obstacles just to watch the Bhoys play. How to bet on Celtic’s matches from New Zealand will be much simpler these days than back then when they’d have to telephone relatives back home in Scotland to put a few quid on Celtic. Now with betpack nz things are much easier and the games are also available to watch on Celtic TV, which is a far cry from the difficulties of the pre-digital era.
Back in 1983 live football was almost unknown in New Zealand, and video recorders were in their infancy. A Celtic supporter’s wife had just returned from a visit to Scotland and had brought back with her ‘The Celtic Story’ video.
He invited a few friends round to watch ‘The Celtic Story’ while enjoying a few beers and this enjoyable afternoon led those present to consider how great it would be to gather together with fellow Celtic supporters and watch Celtic play, something that had never happened before in Auckland.
On 31 October 1983 a meeting was held to discuss the possibility of creating a CSC and also a Celtic soccer team in Auckland. At that time the idea of being a conventional CSC was not really practical, given the distance from Paradise and the complete lack of Scottish football on New Zealand TV.
In early 1984 at another meeting they decided to place an advertisement in a prominent newspaper and by the end of the month many responses had been received, confirming a widespread interest in setting up a CSC in Auckland.
A committee was elected and soon after the idea of staging video nights was agreed and quickly a suitable venue was secured. The launch night would take place at The Auckland Press Club and the entrance price was set at $3, to see The Celtic Story being shown. Two new members were elected to the committee, one being Mike Maher, a prominent writer on The Celtic Star to this day.
Mike arranged for a friend back in Scotland to attend Celtic Supporters Association meetings as a delegate for the New Zealand CSC and he reported back to the club. When members were back in Scotland they interacted with the club, thanks to their role in the CSA, and then Celtic manager Davie Hay and Celtic captain Roy Aitken were both presented with gifts from NZ, The Bear receiving a model Maori War Canoe as a testimonial gift.
Even at this time, videos were still the best chance of supporters in New Zealand seeing Celtic games and great efforts were made to secure these to be show to fellow supporters, all desperate to see the team in action.
By 1996 there was still no Scottish football on television in New Zealand so a trip was organised to fly to Australia to watch an Old Firm game, with someone pointing out that was like flying from Glasgow to Moscow to watch a TV programme.
The trips continued and they introduced the CSC to their counterparts in Australia and soon arrangements were made o have videos sent from Oz rather than awaiting arrivals from Scotland. The Jock Stein CSC in Melbourne was particularly helpful to the Auckland Bhoys. One of the Melbourne guys would record the game live and immediately after the match ended would hand a package to a courier to take to the airport for a flight to Auckland. This meant that the CSC members could all watch the recent Celtic match the next evening, rather than have to wait a few weeks.
By May 1998 Celtic had to beat St Johnstone to stop Rangers doing 10IAR but there was no TV coverage at all, not even in Australia. So they called Radio Clyde in Glasgow to ask if they would help by playing their commentary of the match down a phone-line, with the members presumably paying the call charge. Clyde agreed so their commentary reached New Zealand live via an old fashioned phone-line, with speakers set up at the venue so everyone could hear.
After a very nervous 90 minutes the Celtic celebrations got underway in Auckland and continued through the rest of the morning into a long Sunday night.
Read more on the New Zealand CSC and Celtic Supporters Club all around the world in David McIntrye’s exception book, Football Without Fans, The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs which is available via Amazon.
