| Glasgow
Celtic Football Club was founded in St Mary's
Church Hall in East Rose Street on November 1887, with
the purpose of alleviating poverty in the East End parishes.
During their first full season of competition in 1889,
the club reached the final of the Scottish Cup losing 2-1 to the well-established Third Lanark. However
Celtic’s status as one of the best clubs in the
country was confirmed just a few years later when in 1892
they won the Scottish Cup for the first time, defeating
Queen's Park 5-2.
In the same year the club moved to its current ground Celtic Park and then the trophies really
started rolling in.
The club first won the Scottish League Championship in 1893 and then
between 1905 and 1910 they won the title six seasons
on the trot. During this time they achieved the double
by lifting the Scottish Cup and were crowned champions
in 1907 – the first time the feat had been achieved
in the history of the national sport.
In 1937 Celtic set a new record when they beat Aberdeen
in the Scottish Cup Final in front of a crowd of 146,433
at Hampden Park, and this record-breaking attendance is yet to be beaten for a club match in Europe.
After a decade of disappointment the club finally won
the Scottish League Cup for the first time in 1956 and
then held on to the title the following year by thrashing
Rangers 7-1 in the final.
The 1966/67 season still remains Celtic’s most
glorious as the club won every competition it entered:
Scottish League Championship, Scottish Cup, League Cup,
Glasgow Cup and the European Cup.
But it’s the 2-1 victory over Inter Milan in the European Cup Final at the Estadio Nacional
in Lisbon that most fans remember best because Celtic
proudly became the first British club to win Europe's most coveted trophy.
In 1979 Celtic Park hero Billy McNeill guided
the team to the championship in his first season as
manager, but it was no easy feat. Celtic gained the
title in dramatic fashion with a 4-2 win over Rangers
in the final match of the season.
Celtic celebrated their centenary season, 1987/88, by
winning the first double in 11 years, marking the club’s
35th league title and 28th Scottish Cup.
The early 1990s were perhaps Celtic’s hardest
years as the club struggled to stay afloat until businessman
and Celtic supporter Fergus McCann took the reigns in March 1994.
Later that same year, the club was reconstituted as
a plc, a development quickly followed by the most successful
share-issue in the history of British football with
10,000 people investing a minimum of £620 and
therefore contributing £14 million towards the
re-financing of the club.
The new Millennium began with more shocks for Celtic
in the Scottish Cup when they were beaten 3-1 by rank
outsiders Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
There was more heartache in the championship when Celtic
finished the 1999/2000 season as runners-up to Rangers,
but a massive 21 points behind. However the club did
manage to win the Scottish League Cup.
During the summer Martin O'Neill took
over as manager and endeared himself to the Celtic supporters
by masterminding an astonishing 6-2 victory over Rangers
at Celtic Park in August 2000.
Celtic’s league honours today stand at 40 Scottish League Championships, the most recent being won in the 2005/06 season. The club has also won the Scottish Cup 33 times, most recently in 2005, and the Scottish League Cup 13 times.
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