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Michael Kelly - Celtic director (1990-1994)

(Dr) Michael Kelly is a Scottish politician and businessman. He held the position of Lord Provost from 1980 to 1984, and was Lord Rector of Glasgow University from 1983 to 1987.

A member of one of the families that had controlled Celtic since its foundation, he sat on the club's board of directors until 1994, when the club reached the verge of bankruptcy and the much-criticised old regime was ousted by McCann's takeover.

McCann had said he hoped to raise around £10m from a share issue. Dr Michael Kelly advised fans to invest in the National Lottery rather than buy Celtic shares on the basis that you stood a better chance of getting a return. And in that one statement he beautifully underlined the reason we had to remove him and his colleagues in the first place. He was so well proven wrong on that thankfully.

Overview

What’s to be said of Michael Kelly? Previously a successful Lord Provost of Glasgow (mayoral figurehead of the city council), where he helped to rejuvenate the image of the city with his very successful (and much aped) “Glasgow’s Miles Better” campaign, his coming on board to Celtic was seen as a positive.

Brought on board alongside property developer Brian Dempsey, he shortly ousted the latter in a bitter/public coup which can be taken as the start of the old “Sack the Board” battles. With the media in favour of Dempsey (lucky devil!), the board was to have an upward battle from then on.

Heavily lampooned and satirised in the club fanzines (Not the View and Once a Tim), his public image was forever tarnished, and for little other reason this was good enough reason for his own sake to step down. There is no denying that much criticism was not justified or well informed, and to be fair to Michael Kelly the media in general (and esp the Sport journos) can hardly be taken as the arbiters of right and wrong, especially on business matters An exception must be made for the fanzines as they are product of the paying punters of the club, and generally they are reflecting the voice of the terraces (note: this was way before websites and forums).

Battle after battle, the man was beleaguered yet kept going on. He was seen by most as the actual acting leader of the group of shareholders who signed a contractual pact to stick together. This led to numerous disasters (e.g. Cambuslang stadium project, hiring of Terry Cassidy as Chief Executive, worsening media PR for Celtic etc).

One thing that is a complete myth though is that the board was completely silent through much of the whole debacle sticking their head in the sand, but that was due only to Michael Kelly whilst it was generally true for the rest of them. He did appear on radio shows and did interviews for newspapers, most of the time admittedly coming out negatively. In one interview, he retorted as a reply to Hugh Keevins' questioning: "Do you beat your wife?". At one time that might have been thought of as making a general point (a retorical question), but thankfully times have changed and it's not acceptable anymore, but sadly Michael Kelly refused to realise this point (the connotations to the term are quite offensive). For a man involved in PR, surely he should recognised that. He didn't and it reflected very poorly on him.

At the time, on Monday nights, football commentator Archie MacPherson used to do a great panel sporting program called "Sport in Question" (before the rest copied and ruined the format), and one program was devoted to the Celtic shambles with Michael Kelly and Chairman Kevin Kelly on the show. Truth is that it was a losing battle for the Kellys as actions speak louder than words, but anything that Michael Kelly could have done to alleviate the tensions was totally undone when Kevin Kelly laughably stated on the show that “nobody has Celtic’s interest at heart more than he does” etc and made us all cringe. His cousin was famous for making remarks that embarrassed everyone. In any case, Michael Kelly was as over-defensive as ever and any hope that they were to reach out to the support evaporated and the support was left with more patronising statements by Michael Kelly.

Some episodes with Michael Kelly were comical as well. In the final game to be played in front of "The Jungle" terracing, the club invited fans to dress up for the occasion in fancy dress costumes. There were the usual stuff from the fans, but unknown to the support that one person lurking amongst the support in a tiger costume was Michael Kelly! If he was outed on the terraces it could have been trouble.

Paranoia set in, exemplified when at one match in the corporate area one man went upto him and tapped him on the shoulder and said something simple, but then Michael Kelly went into overdrive and started calling for police. In fairness, it was a stressful time and anything could trigger off rage to anyone in such circumstances. However, it was also clear to all that he wasn't increasingly fit to make decisions in this state yet he was the most central person on the board at the time.

As things went on, it was all obvious that it had to come to an end, but sadly it went down to the wire. The club was a few moments from bankruptcy, and pulling last minute strings did little for Michael Kelly’s appearance, coming over as arrogant and deluded (the old board announced they were going to do a public share issue!). The takeover saw him leave immediately albeit paid handsomely for his shares to the chagrin of Fergus McCann, an ignominious end for the former Lord Provost.

The irony is that a man who helped to engineer some change whilst in the archaic world of Glasgow politics, and was then brought in to help reshape Celtic, became possibly the staunchest conservative of the lot at Celtic. Was he deluded in the extreme, or possibly too intelligent for everyone else to understand him, or was it simply an attack of hubris as happens to many others in power?

Fellow board member but arch-opponent James Farrell delivered a very biting warning on Michael Kelly's position: “All that I have done, as I have said in this statement is resisted Michael Kelly, because he is the man who in my view should be ejected from this board. He [Michael Kelly] has caused unbelievable disruption. He has been paid a handsome salary, admittedly under contract for public relations, and in my view the public relations of this football club in the past 18 months or two years have never been lower. If I am voted off today, those directors who are with him unless he changes his tune completely, will find him a most uneasy bedfellow, and they will not rest in their beds at night for imagining what he is up to.”

Whatever the case, his time at Celtic was marked by shoddy club management, poor public relations (fuelled by a Hun biased media) and parochialism, all elements that Michael Kelly should have had experience in dealing with whilst Glasgow’s Lord Provost. A sad experience for both the club and himself, but few other relationships for the club with people have led to as grave a situation as panned out during Michael’s tenure.

Since his departure he has been a newspaper columnist (ironically) where he penned some cringing rubbish, written up a book on the London underground (!) and has moved back to sort out his business life. Notably, he wrote a very biased but still surprisingly good book on the whole shambles titled “Paradise Lost”, and if you want to see how he really thinks then this is as close as you will ever get.

Post-Script

Book Review

• Paradise Lost - "The Struggle for Celtic's Soul" by Michael Kelly

Links

• Celtic Takeover Homepage

KDS

• Opinions Michael Kelly (2011)

Kelly interview stirs Celtic pot By Staff Reporter

19/08/1999

Scottish Soccer CELTIC’S official club magazine, the Celtic View, was thrown into a storm of controversy yesterday when its main feature was an interview with former director Michael Kelly. Kelly, the nephew of former Chairman Sir Bob Kelly, was one of seven deposed directors in 4 March 1994 when Fergus McCann swept to power at Parkhead ­ and is now seen as a villain by Celtic fans the world over.

The club, it would appear, afforded him the opportunity to put the past behind him and make some attempt to clear his conscience ­ he refused. Instead he stirred a new row by defending former Rangers’ Vice-Chairman Donald Findlay and insisted that “just because you sing a sectarian song that doesn’t make you a bigot”.

Telephone lines to the popular Press in Glasgow were bombarded yesterday by irate supporters, outraged that the club had given space to the likes of Kelly who took the Celtic to within hours of bankruptcy by refusing to sell-out to people who were willing to invest for the future. But Kelly was unrepentant for what the Celtic fans believe as his sins against their club. He said; “I think that it is important that wounds do heal now and there were some pretty open wounds on both sides. “All I did when I left was write my book (Paradise Lost) and I was standing for the traditions of Celtic and I think that it has continued within what we all know was a unique club.”

There was a touch of irony to see Kelly pictured in the Directors’ Box at the new Celtic Park ­ a stadium he said would never be in place. In his book of 1994 he said; “The decision has been taken to allow Celtic Park to be rebuilt as a 60,000 all-seated stadium....I am prepared to state categorically that this will never be finished.” Kelly attacked the media who certainly stirred the pot as the Celts for Change groups were actively plotting his and his family’s fall from grace six years ago.

Ironically, it is the same media who he depends on nowadays to earn a living, a bit like former manager Jock Brown who went on to have a go at the Press and then re-join them. And not only did Kelly defend Findlay to the annoyance of the Celtic supporters, he also defended Brown. “It was quite appalling how Jock Brown was treated. He was absolutely ideal for the job, but basically because he came from a media background, they had a great problem. “That’s the nature of the media now. They personalise and attack a person and they are so powerful you really just have to bow to it, but I never took it personally and I coped fine.”Water off a duck’s back is as good a way as any to describe the former Lord Provost of Glasgow’s feelings about anything in life ­ the man appears completely un-insultable.

A clever marketing ploy also on behalf of Celtic who not only offered Kelly an olive branch of sorts with this platform to air his views but, at the same time, they have lost the ‘Pravda’ mantle their publication has held for so long

1993-05-15: Celtic 2-0 Dundee, Premier Division, Click for Match page

For one match, people were asked to come in fancy dress if they wanted - a parrot won the prize. Michael Kelly was amongst the supporters dressed as a tiger! Luckily he never took off his costume head else he might have got into a spot of bother!