It’s not often we’ll refer to the Hugh Keevins column in the Sunday Mail, although Ordinary Bhoy sometimes like to have a laugh or two about some of the daft predictions – for example, ‘ANGE’ meaning Absolutely Not Good Enough after two or three games – or radio rants about Celtic throwing away two points when St Johnstone equalised deep into stoppage time, only for Celtic to score a 96th minute winner 30 seconds later while Hugh was in mid ‘doom and gloom’ Celtic bashing rant mode.

So he’s not that respected in these parts it’s fair to say, sad really given that he’s a Celtic man at heart. But making a living in the sports department for the mainstream media outlets over the decades he’s been doing it, well, sacrifices had to be made…

An exception today as Hugh Keevins in his column spoke to Brin Dempsey, one of the prominent figures who ‘saved’ Celtic in March 1994 and famously stood at the front door at Celtic Park alongside Fergus McCann and said “The game is over. The rebels have won.”

On this day in 1994 Fergus McCann’s takeover of Celtic was completed. The foundations he laid, along with the fans who bought into his vision and bought shares, set Celtic up for the success the club enjoys today. pic.twitter.com/UqnQ8rpped

— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog_09) March 4, 2025

Keevins was a prominent reporter at that time and has used his contacts book to get the views on the current situation at Celtic – were over 400 supporters organisations have signed a letter of protest and all the supporters associations have past votes of no confidence in the Celtic Board after a shambolic transfer window, crashing out of the Champions League to to lowest ranked team in the play-offs and issuing that mad statement around 9pm last Saturday night with those running our club actually thinking that was the right thing to do.

So what does Brian Dempsey make of it all and Celtic hits choppy waters once again? He starts by referring to Dermot Desmond and the crucial role that he played last time around, and perhaps this gives us some understanding of the current regime’s money hoarding ways.

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“I have to be honest and say my original thought was that Dermot might be an opportunist, but I was wrong,” Brian Dempsey said to Keevins as reported by Daily Record.

“The deal to remove the two families, the Kellys and the Whites, who controlled the club could have been done without Dermot but it couldn’t have been completed properly without his input of cash.

“He consummated the arrangement. That is why I look on with sadness and in disbelief at what is happening now between Celtic and the supporters of the club.

“When an institution like Celtic loses the goodwill of the fans then they are in trouble. They need to get it back quickly by being honest, sincere and genuine. And the most urgent need is to convince the fans that the Celtic hierarchy does have ambition,” Brian Dempsey said.

“I would struggle to understand how the board can continue to oversee a situation where there is a lack of mutual respect between the club and the fans. I would never refer to the Celtic support as the customer base because they’re not customers.

“They are people who, over the 30 years since the takeover, have put tens of millions of pounds into Celtic and who make personal sacrifices to go on doing so.

“The club are financially indebted to them and must never forget that. The fans are now, as they were in 1994, the ones who make Celtic a viable company with their relentless purchase of season tickets, merchandising and everything else on offer from the club.

“And yet we have come to a situation where there will be an organised boycott of the first 12 minutes of the game against Kilmarnock. And how ironic is it that the opposition happens to be Kilmarnock.

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