Formed In: 1888
Based In: Glasgow, Scotland
Play In: Scottish Premier League (SPL)
Nicknames: The Bhoys, The Hoops
Celtic are one of the oldest clubs in Scotland, and together with their fierce rivals Rangers they are known collectively as ‘The Old Firm’. Both teams have dominated Scottish football for many years and ‘The Hoops’ are the current SPL champions, having secured an exciting title win on the final day of last season.
They have won the Scottish league an incredible 42 times, to go along with their 34 Scottish Cup triumphs. In 1967 Celtic became the first British team to win the European Cup (now the Champions League) when they defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the final. Not only were the entire Celtic team who won the cup Scottish, but they were all born within 30 miles of the team stadium ‘Celtic Park’.
Celtic Park is also known to many supporters as ‘Parkhead’, after the area in which it is built. The team have a long association with the East End of their home town of Glasgow. They were formed over 100 years ago by a local religious group to help raise money for poor people living in the community.
Celtic Park can currently hold over 60,000 supporters, which means at present only Manchester United have a bigger football stadium in Britain. The record crowd at Celtic Park is an incredible 92,000 people!
In 2003 Celtic made it all the way to the final of the UEFA Cup, only to lose 3-2 against a Porto team managed by a man well known to us, former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
Many of the current Celtic players are known all over the world. Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc and Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink both featured at the recent 2008 European Championship Finals.
Celtic also currently have two English players in their squad. They are Lee Naylor (a defender) and Ben Hutchinson, a striker who used to play for Middlesbrough in the Premier League.
Many current and former English Premier League players also made their names whilst turning out in the famous green and white hooped jerseys. Perhaps the most famous amongst them is Henrik Larsson (who played for Man United), but others include Mark Viduka of Newcastle and Stilian Petrov and Shaun Maloney of Aston Villa.
Even though it is not the capital, Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and nearly half of the entire population of the country either live there or in the surrounding area. It was built around the banks of the River Clyde and became very famous in the last century for engineering and shipbuilding.
Two other smaller Scottish football league teams also play in Glasgow. They are Partick Thistle and Queen’s Park, who play their home matches in front of a few hundred die hard supporters at the 52,000 seat Scottish national stadium at Hampden.
In 2014 Glasgow will host the famous Commonwealth Games, a sporting event which is similar to the Olympics. Although Celtic Park is not being used for The Games, a cycling stadium (known as a velodrome) will be built near to Celtic’s home ground in Parkhead.