Mystery Celtic legend to front up Hoops-daft businessman's campaign revealed amid 'alliance' against board
The Season Ticket Alliance campaign was launched in February
Celtic-daft businessman Willie Haughey has revealed that Paul McStay will front up the ‘Season Ticket Alliance’ campaign against Dermot Desmond and the Hoops board.
Haughey announced in February when the campaign was launched that there was a Celtic legend on board, however he has waited until now to reveal the identity of McStay, who featured made 678 appearances for the Hoops as a player and won eight major trophies. The Season Ticket Alliance was set up to help give a voice back to supporters in a season where Desmond and co have ‘dropped the ball’.
For every 10,000 Celtic supporters that sign up to the alliance free of charge, Haughey will pledge £2 million worth of his of his own shares to the new group. In turn, this means if all 54,000 season ticket holders were to sign up, that more than £10 million would be pledged to purchase shares. The multi-millionaire Hoops investor is doing this to try and bring some harmony back into the club.
Celtic legend unveiled as campaign frontman
Upon the announcement, Haughey reflected on the career of McStay, who he described as ‘the unluckiest footballer that ever lived’. The midfielder was a standout for Celtic in the 1980s and 1990s and was loyal to the club despite limited success during this period. Haughey told Go Radio: “Paul McStay is the Celtic legend who will front up the season ticket alliance.
“From everyone who joins, we’re going to pick five trustees and one of those trustees will be the chair. Until that point, Paul will be the chair and the spokesperson for the club. I won’t name him but a Celtic legend said to me the other week that Paul is the unluckiest footballer that ever lived. If Paul McStay had started his football career when it was finishing, there’s no doubt he’d have been the greatest Celtic player ever.
“At that time, Rangers were spending loads of money and Celtic had no money. But when Paul got the injury at the end it meant he couldn’t play. I would say to any of the younger fans, if you’ve not seen the clips of Paul McStay on YouTube, I’m unashamed to say that I never even realised how good he was. He was unbelievable in every aspect of being a midfielder and today he would be worth £150million.”
Why did Haughey establish the ‘Season Ticket Alliance’?
Amid a season of turmoil on and off the pitch, Haughey accused the Celtic board of falling asleep at the wheel in terms of recruitment and feels as if they’ve ignored the cries of supporters for too long. Upon the launch of his new campaign two months ago, he said: “It’s a wee bit like the political situation at the moment. If some of the things were happening, that the club aren’t happy about… if they weren’t happening, and the fans were taking it, would you think that things are alright, when you’re third in the league? What would the board think? What would Dermot think?
“Dermot’s a winner. He’s been a winner all his life. I think there’s just a better way of saying: ‘Listen, things have been brilliant for 25 years, right? For a wee bit, over the past, we might’ve dropped the ball a wee bit.’ And the club have come out and said, ‘we’ve got this wrong, we’ve got that wrong’. All we’re saying is, we want you to look a little bit broader. Why we think we’ve dropped the ball. What are we doing?
“For me, as a fan, we had an opportunity there in the window to bring in players, and it looked as if we just used the same old system to bring in those players. I think most fans, watching the games, that none of them have enhanced what we needed. That’s not me having a go. That’s just a fact. What I would say to Dermot, Ross and the guys is: listen to what the guys are saying, because a lot of it is spot on!”