NEWS STORIES 2003-2004

PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE THIS PAGE LOADS - The page contains ALL of the news from this season's Celtic issues.

CELTIC PROGRAMMES 1946/47- 2002/3 CDROM 2nd Edition

Joe Gilhooley of the Celtic Collectors Club has published an updated version of his excellent "Celtic Programmes" CDROM. The CD contains information and pictures of every Celtic programme published since WW2. You can buy a copy from the Celtic Collectors Club.

UEFA CUP RUN 2003/04 SOUVENIR PHOTOGRAPH (February 2004)

The Celtic Collectors Club has designed a great photographic souvenir of Celtic's UEFA Cup run and is selling a limited number to collectors. The 15 x 12 inch photograph is professionally made and has an image of every official programme and match ticket published during the epic journey to Seville last summer (those were the days). Unlike the sample pics used here, the photograph is crystal clear. Click here for more info. Bigger picture.

CORINTHIANS AND OTHER MEMORABILIA FOR SALE

If collecting Corinthian Football figures is your thing, you should visit the Web site of Pete Harris. Pete has lots of Corinthians, programmes, cards and other memorabilia for sale (including some Celtic figures) on his site. The site is called www.corinthians4ever.com. To visit the site click here.

CELTIC PROGRAMMES FOR SALE

Celtic collector, Kevin Bradley is selling his collection of Celtic programmes. Kevin has set up a Web site to help with the sale and has organised the programmes into several catagories to make it easier for you to find the one you want. Every programme is listed along with an indication of condition and all of them are at fixed prices. You can visit the Web site and make contact with Kevin by clicking this link - www.freewebs.com/kevsceltic/.

JUNE 2004

ALTERNATIVE VIEW JUNE 2004 ISSUE 26 - 01/06/04

The latest issue of alternative VIEW is on sale at your usual outlet. Issue 26 of the mag has 36 A4 size page in full-colour for £2.50. There is an interview with, Player of the Year, Jackie McNamara, Celtic Minded by Dr. Joseph Bradley is reviewed and, just as we have all paid for renewing our season books, aV asks "are Celtic pricing the fans out?" Click to see a picture of Issue 26 or here for the alternative VIEW page.

MAY 2004

CELTIC YOUTH IN THE HONG KONG 7's - MAY 2004

Celtic recently took part in the Hong Kong FC annual International 7's tournament held in the chinese state. The tournament was played on Sat 29 - Sun 30 May 2004 and Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa, and Rangers joined Celtic and hosts HKFC. As usual, a glossy, A4 programme was on sale at HK$100 (£7) and that included entry vouchers for both days of the tournament. Click here to see our Hong Kong 7s page. The tournament has it's own Web site at www.soccer7s.com. The event was recorded by Sky and highlights of the tournament will be shown some time this month (June 2004).

AULD FIRM ANNUAL CHARITY MATCH

For the second year in a row, the regulars at the Tower Bar in East Kilbride have arranged an Old Firm Charity match in aid of TAK TENT Cancer Relief. The match was held at East Kilbride Thistle's Showpark Ground on Sunday 30 May 2004 and as with last year's match, an 8 page match programme was on sale. Click here to see it.

RECENT CELTIC YOUTH PROGRAMMES - 08/06/04

Celtic youth teams have been playing in football tournaments in Europe recently and match programmes have been issued for all of them. The first programme was the Ommoord tournament in Holland on the 22nd and 23rd of May 2004 where Celtic's Under 12's took part. The A5 programme has 24 pages printed in mono with a purple spot colour card cover. Click to see it.

The next is for the Terborg tounament in Holland on 21st to 23rd of May 2004. This time the U19's competed alongside Ajax, Feyenoord, Barcelona and Boca Juniors. This is a more expensive production and is printed on 108 glossy, B5 pages (better than anything produced in Scotland this year). Click here to see it.

Finally, an excellent programme was produced for the GardaCup tournament in Italy where Celtic were represented by their Under 15's team with Manchester City, Utrecht, Grasshoppers, B. Dortmund, Anderlecht and others making up the 12 competing teams. The A4 size programme has 76 pages printed in full colour on glossy paper. Click here to see it.

SEVILLA C.F. - HENRIK LARSSON TRIBUTE MATCH 25/05/04

Celtic beat Sevilla 1-0 tonight in the king of kings tribute match at Celtic Park. We saw Henrik in a Celtic jersey for the last time ever and it is hard to believe he's gone. A special match programme was on sale and, similar to Saturdays Scottish Cup final programme, sold out an hour before kick-off. Given the demand for Larsson stuff, this one will be very difficult to get if you don't already have one. Click these links for pictures of - a match ticket, the official teamsheet, a Paradise Windfall ticket. Click here for the Henrik Larsson Tribute page.

THE VIEW FROM THE 32 ISSUE 9 - SPRING 2004

The View from the 32 is the official magazine of the Association of Irish Celtic Supporters Clubs. The mag has forty four A4 pages of photographs and articles in full-colour and costs £2.99/€4.50. You can subribe to mag by writing to AICSC, P.O. Box 32, Belfast, BT1 1AA or by going to their Web site at www.aicsc.com. The subscription rates are £2.99 / €4.50 plus postage of £1.00 / €1.50 for 1 copy, 2 copies £2.40, €3 and so on.

THE ONE THAT SUTTON WON

The Scottish Professional Footballers Association held the 2003 - 3004 Player of the Year awards ceremony was held recently. Chris Sutton won the Player of the Year awards and Stephen Pearson won the young player equivalent. As usual, a programme was produced for the occasion. It is A4 size, has 16 pages and is printed in full-colour on glossy pages with a heavy card cover. Click here for a bigger picture.

CLYDEBANK OLD BOYS versus CELTIC OLD BOYS 23/05/04

Celtic Old Boys played their Clydebank equivelent at Glenhead Park on Sunday 23rd of May in a match to raise funds for the stricken club. Clydebank have lost their league status and are now playing in the Abercorn Central District Junior League. In fact, while Celtic were beating the Pars at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final last Saturday, Clydebank were being crowned champions of their league. The match was to raise funds to help the club and a match programme was on sale for £1.

THE LARSSON FINAL - 22 MAY 2004

The Celtic fans at Hampden today were witnessing the end of an era as they watched Henrik Larsson score two fantastic goals in a 3-1 cup final win for the Hoops. The king of kings struck with typical deadliness to reduce the Pars' early 1-0 lead to a 2-1 deficit and Stan Petrov made it three. A 60 page match programme was on sale for £4 but sold out well before kick-off. It is A4 in size and printed in full colour on glossy pages with a laminated cover. Click these links for pictures of a match ticket and the official teamsheet.

DUNDEE UNITED SPL38 SUN 16/05/04 - LARSSONS LAST

Living legend, Henrik Larsson played his last competitive match at Celtic Park today and signed off in the style we all wanted for him. He scored two goals against a United team that played well and were unlucky not to score on a few occasions themselves. Celtic issued a match programme that was a total sell-out very quickly and long before kick-off. Click here to see a picture of a match ticket and Windfall ticket.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 123 16/05/04 - LARSSON SPECIAL

The second NTV in two weeks was on sale at Celtic Park today. £1.50 for the usual amount of pages and content with the inclusion of a "Farwell to Henrik" bit and the same for Liam Miller. There were plenty around so you should get one at Hampden (if you're lucky enough to have a ticket). Click on the image to see a bigger picture or here to see every issue printed.

SFWA PLAYER OF THE YEAR PROGRAMME - 09/05/04

The Scottish Football Writers' Player of the Year was Jackie McNamara and the Young Player of the Year was Stephen Pearson. The awards dinner was held at the Glasgow Hilton hotel on Sunday 9th May and a 28 page programme was printed for the occasion. Click here to see a bigger picture of the programme.

LARSSON LIMITED EDITION PRINT

A leaflet handed out at the cup final on Saturday was offering a limited edition Henrik Larsson print to anyone who would take one. The 1000 A3 prints don't look official as there is no endorsement from the king of kings (or Celtic) included in the wording of the ad. The artist is not made clear but we are told that the £150 prints are approved and signed by Peter Howson. The actual image of Henrik takes some getting used to but whoever chose the crappy blue background must be in charge of the LSD cabinet at Howson's. Sorry, but £150 for a print by who knows who is not good value in our opinion and we didn't really like it anyway. If you want to buy one, "The Third Step" have a Web site that takes orders - www.thethirdstep.co.uk.

6 IN-A-ROW FOR RANGERS - SPL36 08/05/04

Celtic issued a match programme with a new cover design for today's Rangers match at Celtic Park. Player of the Year, Chris Sutton scored a classy winner to make it six defeats in a row for team that Eck built. Winning five matches in one season is something that Rangers have never done to Celtic. The closest they came was in the 1963/64 season when they managed to win four Old Firm matches. If Celtic beat Motherwell on Wednesday night, they will be unbeaten in every SPL away match this season.

TIOCFAIDH ÁR LÁ Issue 38 - 08/05/04

Issue 38 of the Tiocfaidh Ár Lá fanzine was on sale at the Rangers match on Saturday and again at the Motherwell midweek match at Fir Park. It is the third issue of the current season and has 24 A4 sized glossy pages for £1.50 / €2.50. The King of Kings is on the front cover holding a copy of TAL issue 20. That issue was out near the end of Henriks first season at Celtic (1997/98), when he still had his dreadlocks. Click the image for a bigger picture or here to go to the TAL page.

YOUNG CELTS WIN THE LEAGUE 06/05/05

So far this season, Celtic have won the SPL title, the Under 21's have won their league, Martin O'God is the manager of the year, Chris Sutton, Jackie McNamara and Stephen Pearson scooped all of the "Player of the Year" awards, the fans have been declared the best in the World and last night the Under 19's beat Rangers youths to the U19's Youth League title after Rangers lost 3-0 to Hearts U19's.

There is more to the youths story. Rangers have been struggling to sell their season tickets for next season and at the closing date for renewals last week, only 23,000 fans were loyal enough to pay up. However, in expectancy of the U19's winning their league, Rangers had planned an very expensive advertising spread in their daily newspaper to encourage the reluctant fans to cough up. The young Rangers players were to be displayed as a very talented bunch, as winners, the champions of the future and the reason why their fans should renew. Hearts beat them 3-0 last night at Victoria Park and it was a case of a quick phone call to the Daily Record and a very disappointed advertising lackey at the other end receiving the call. Back to the drawing board.

THE CELT ISSUE 78 - May 2004

The latest issue of The Celt magazine is out. It has forty A4 pages, printed black on copier quality paper. It is crammed with fantastic reading and there are contributions from Celtic author, Tom Campbell. The Celt is the most difficult of Celtic publications to get but if your interested enough, you can subscribe to the authors most reliable subscription service. Subscriptions are £5 for every 4 issues, the price includes p&p and there are six issues per year. Send your payment to E.A. MacBride, 31, Harrowby Lane, GRANTHAM, NG31 9HY. Click here to see a picture of the current issue and here to see every issue of The Celt.

CELTIC IN EUROPEAN COMPETITION by Jack Boyle 02/05/05

Celtic collector and Web site author, Jack Boyle, has issued an update on his excellent "Celtic in European Competition". It covers the current season in Europe and has eight A4 pages of facts on every European game played this season along with an account of each match. The original issue in June 2003 tells the story of every European tie played by Celtic since their very first foray into European competition in the 1962/63 season against Valencia in the old Inter Cities Fairs Cup (now the UEFA cup) up to and including the tragedy in the Olimpico in Seville.

Each leg is described giving the competition, teams, scorers, attendance, venue and date and is finished off with a short summary of the game's events and an action picture from the match. On the back two pages, appearances and goals statistics are given for every players that has played for Celtic in Europe over the years and every manager is listed along with their particular Euro record. The front cover has the famous photo of King Billy lifting the European Cup in Lisbon in the middle of the white background page and is surrounded by coloured club crests for most (could be all) of the clubs played against. If you want to buy a copy of either, you can contact Jack through his Web site.

TICTALK - WORLD HUDDLE CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 6 APRIL 2004

TICTALK is the official magazine of the World Huddle Club. The mag has 16 A4 size pages in full colour and is issued free to club members and, because we all get automatic free membership, season ticket holders. The first issue appeared in August 2002 and is now in it's sixth issue, printed about every four months. This issue has Alan Thompson and the King of Kings on the front cover, a double page poster of oor Henrik in the middle pages along with a two page article on TKOK. If you want to see a picture of this and the other five issues, click here.

SUDUVA REPRINTS ARE A RIP OFF

The selling of Suduva away programme reprints continues on ebay. The money being asked for this reprint is ridiculous as they are not in any way rare - it is the original programme that is rare, not the reprint. You can get as many as you want from a conman in Lithuania. The guy contacted us and claimed in his email that the reprints are made on the same printing press as the originals. We don't believe this is true and we have let him know where to go.

The Lithuanian conman will tell you anything to sell you his dodgy productions and if it doesn't stop, programme collecting will be 'oot the windae' for good. Why should someone pay over £200 pounds for a rare programme only to find the market has been flooded by dodgy reprints. These reprints are not worth 20 pence so please don't buy them.

It used to be an 'undergound' and shady type of activity to sell reprints. Not any more. Sellers on ebay are telling us, as bold as brass, that the programme they are selling is a reprint, made to fool you into thinking you have an original, by looking as near to the original as possible. And, what happens when the reprint is sold on? Will the seller declare, or even know that the programme he/she is selling is a reprint? I don't think so. The only way to stop this practice is for collectors not to buy reprints.

THREE CELTIC FANZINES - 02/05/04

Three Celtic fanzines competed to sell their latest issues at the Dunfermline match on Sunday - The glossy A4 sized More than 90 Mins had Neil Lennon celebrating at Kilmarnock on their front cover of Issue 23. The Irish based fanzine is a slick production with content to match. At £2, we think it's value for money. Click here to see a picture of the front cover.

Issue 122 of the longest running Celtic fanzines, Not The View, was on sale for £1.50. Click here to see a picture of the front cover or here for every issue.

The newest of Celtic fanzines, Green, White & Bold had Issue 4 on sale. They have now survived their third month since Issue 1 in late January this year. At only £1.50 for 40 pages, the editor tells us that no profit is made from sales, all the money goes to the street-sellers and the mag is depending on advertisers to survive. If you would like to advertise your business in GWB, contact the editor at www.greenwhiteandbold.com. Click here to see the front cover.

DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC SPL35 - 02/05/04

Dunfermline gained a well deserved victory at Celtic's title party on Sunday. It was a 'slap in the face' for the Bank of Scotland/SPL organisers as the entirely staged event backfired. The whole thing was boring and the best thing about the entire afternoon was watching the miniature versions of Larsson, Thompson and Douglas play football to the cheers of the entire Celtic End - the only thing they didn't stage manage, the only thing worth watching. Celtic issued a match programme.

FAKE BARCELONA TEAMSHEET

Some people on ebay are still selling the colour teamsheet for the Barcelona UEFA Cup game in the Nou Camp as an official issue. It is not an official issue and was created solely to cash in on the Celtic collectors on ebay - even though we have informed them of the fake. The original seller has stopped selling his copies as he was inundated by complaints and was forced to give refunds. He was the guy that supplied the people still selling it and they are selling copies they have made themselves.

NOT EVERY CELTIC PROGRAMME IS A SELL-OUT - 1/05/04

Most of the programmes for Celtic's home matches this season have been sell-outs. However, some were not and are still available at the Celtic online shop. If you need any of those list below, click here to buy it. Programmes that cost £2 originally are £3 and the £3 issues are £4, the programme will be mint condition and the price includes postage.

The programmes available are - v Rangers 03/01/04 £3, v Kilmarnock 31/01/04 £3, Dundee Utd 14/02/04 £3, v FK Teplice 26/02/04 £3, v Livingston 29/02/04 £3, v Barcelona 11/03/04 £4, v Motherwell 14/03/04 £3, v Hearts 03/04/04 £3, v Aberdeen 21/04/04 £3, v Dunfermline 02/05/04 £3, v Rangers 08/05/04 £3, v Villarreal 08/04/04 £4.

APRIL 2004

UPDATE ON CELTIC YOUTH PROGRAMMES - 30/04/04

During the current season, Rangers collector Iain McKee has been issueing programmes for Rangers youth team matches in limited numbers. The programmes are distributed free to fans attending the matches, irrespective of what team they support. This has meant a few issues for Celtic collectors to get hold of - U19's at Barrowfield on 14/10/03 and 02/04/04 (80 copies issued, 700 crowd), U19's at Murray Park on 13/03/04 and at Ibrox on 15/04/04 (220 copies issued, match cancelled) and the U21's at Broadwood on 05/01/04.

Iain has plans to issue for next season but explains that it will all depend on when and where they play the Old Firm Youth matches, as well as how much notice they give. We will be in contact with Iain and will let you know the details. Click here if you would like to see pictures of these and other Celtic youth programmes issued this season.

ALTERNATIVE VIEW MAY 2004 ISSUE 25 - 27/04/04

The May issue of the alternative VIEW magazine is now on sale at your local supplier. With Neil Lennon at Kilmarnock on the front cover, the main subject for this issue is Celtic's 3rd SPL title in four seasons. Click here to see a picture of the front cover. Click here for every issue of the alternative VIEW and more info.

HEARTS SPL34 SUN 25/04/04

Celtic drew 1-1 with Hearts today and gave a debut to goalscorer Aidan McGeady. The eighteen year old slammed a first-time shot into the Hearts net to put the Hoops one up in 17 minutes before they got an equaliser late in the match. Click for a picture of the match programme and a match ticket.

ABERDEEN SPL32 (postponed match) 21/04/04

Celtic's unbeaten run of 77 matches at Celtic Park was ended by Aberdeen last night. An even more disappointing aspect of the match was the refusal of the SPL and their sponsors to present the trophy at the match. We have watched through a long season of drivel matches to win that trophy and it should have been at Kilmarnock last Sunday. That match was televised (the pathetic excuse given by the SPL and their sponsors for the delay in presenting the trophy) and you can bet your last pound on the fact that it would have been different if Rangers had been in with a chance of winning it - helicopters would have been hired, strings would have been pulled and the trophy would have winged it's way to Ibrox for the Teddy Bears to enjoy the moment. What do we get? Oh, you lot will have to wait 3 weeks. Click here for the match programme.

JIMMY JOHNSTONE ON THE WING

Celtic and Scotland star Jimmy Johnstone is to be immortalised on film by Jeff Healey and Jamie Doran. Filmed in documentary style, "Lord of the Wing" tells the life story of Celtic's best ever player. The film will be available to buy in VHS and DVD format from this May and you can pre-order a copy at Jinky's official Web site - www.jimmyjohnstone.com/. If you can't wait until then, the film is to be premiered at the SECC's Clyde Auditorium on Sunday, April 25. To get tickets for this historic event, call the SECC box office on 08700404000 or get them at their Web site - www.secctickets.com.

In case you think that Jimmy is only famous in Scotland, he's not. The day after the Villarreal debacale in Spain, I bought some Spanish sports papers in Valencia to read the Celtic match reports. On the inside back page of the AS sports paper, I had to do a double take to confirm that I was looking at a picture of Jinky in a Scotland strip and below that a substantial article about him. Click here to see a copy of the report and picture. Click this to see a picture of the AS newspaper (itself a Villarreal collectable). Click this to see some streaming video samples of the film at the author's Web site.

This is not the first film made about Jinky. Communications company, Cameron Williams made a video about his career in the early 90's called JINKY: The Jimmy Johnstone Story. It is an excellent production and I never tire of watching it. The original cover for the video is shown here, on the left, but you can still buy a second issue copy with a different cover at the Celtic Superstore.

CELTIC SUPPORTERS' ANNUAL RALLY 58 - 18/04/04

The Celtic Supporters' 58th Annual Rally was held in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 18th April with Martin O'God as the Guest of Honour. With the Hoops winning the SPL championship at the Theatre of Pies earlier in the day, a great night was had by all who attended. As usual a rally programme was issued for £2.00.

KILMARNOCK SPL33 18/04/04 - SPL TROPHY in PARADISE

Celtic beat Kilmarnock 1-0 today and silenced the closet Paris Buns that support them by getting back our SPL trophy. Stan Petrov scored from close in on the 32nd minute and made sure of automatic entry to the Champions League group stage next season. They published their usual boring match programme with multi-coloured crap inside for £2. Click these for pictures of a match ticket and official teamsheet.

VILLARREAL CF UEFA CUP 14/04/04

Celtic's UEFA Cup adventure ended at the El Madrigal as Villarreal beat Martin ONeill's depleated team 2-0. Several publications were available to collectors on the night - Two official issues: a match programme and match newspaper, a Villarreal fans bulletin, a Spanish pirate programme and a white pirate programme (origin unknown - didn't see it being sold at the match). An official match pennant was sold by stall holders and at the club shop.

LIVINGSTON Scottish Cup Semi-final 11/04/04

LIVINGSTON at Hampden, Scottish Cup Semi-final, 11/04/04.

CELTIC YOUTH PROGRAMMES

Celtic youth teams have played in a couple of matches recently that have produced match programmes. The Under 19's played Rangers U19's in an SPL Youth League match at Ibrox on Thursday 15 April and an limited number of unofficial match programmes were distributed free. The second, is a tournament programme for the London Cup. The tournament was played from the 5 to 8 April in London and Celtic's excellent Under 16's won the cup by beating Crystal Palace in the final.

CELTIC MINDED a book by Dr Joseph M. Bradley

"Celtic Minded: essays on religion, politics, society, identity ,,,, and football" is the full title of a new Celtic related book about to be published by Argyll Publishing. The author is Joseph M. Bradley, a lecturer in sports studies at the University of Stirling.

The book is out on 1st May, is illustrated with many interesting pictures with views of Celtic people from around Europe and the USA. If you want to read more on this book click here for a comprehensive rundown on the contents and information on how to order your copy post free at the Celtic Collectors Club Web site.

FAKE AUTOGRAPHED HENRIK MEMORABILIA ON EBAY

It has been noticed by some Celtic collectors that (some/most) items being sold on ebay with The King of Kings autograph on them are actualy FAKES. Now there's a surprise given ebay's record on fake items. Tom Henry, an expert in Celtic autographs, has had enough and is letting everyone know about this illegal practice. Recently, one of them tried to auction John Hartson's (autographed) match strip from the Liverpool UEFA Cup victory at Anfield on ebay. It turned out to be a complete fake. Of course the seller denied all knowledge and tried to distance himself from the claim by blaming someone else and saying that he had been mislead himself. Oh the poor wee soul.

Celtic collectors are numerous on ebay and these conmen see us as an easy mark. Let's not let them get away with it. From now on, don't be afraid to ask questions before bidding. Tom has made an effort to help collectors by using ebay itself to spread the word. Anyway, if you want to know what he has to say or to find out how to get help from Tom, click here.

VILLARREAL CF UEFA CUP 08/04/04

Celtic drew 1-1 with Villarreal tonight at Celtic Park in the Quarter final of the UEFA Cup. Celtic issued an A4 glossy match programme in high numbers for £3. The programme was not a sell-out so you should be able to pick up a copy at the next home match easily. No match mug this time but there was an official pennant (sorry no picture) for the ridiculous price of £10. Two match pin badges were available (not official) from street vendors - Pin1 and Pin2. Click here for a picture of a match ticket and Paradise Windfall ticket.

Why don't Celtic sell these match souvenirs for more reasonable prices. Ten pounds for a wee triangular piece of plastic is just taking the P***. They also have to be consistent about issuing these souvenirs. They had a match mug available for the Barcelona match, yet none for the Villarreal match. Don't they know that it is collectors that buy these crappy things and that gaps or missing items in our collections drive us MAD. Please be consistent Celtic and get the prices down.

HEARTS SPL31 SAT 03/04/04

The Celts fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 and bring their unbeaten run at Celtic Park to 76 games in a row today. It was a very close thing with Didier Agathe scoring the second in injury time but thank God we didn't let that lot stop the run. Special mention goes to referee Douglas McDonald who gave the worst performance of any whistler this season. Celtic issued their usual match programme.

MORE THAN 90 MINS / NOT THE VIEW 03/04/04

Two Celtic fanzines were on sale in the pouring rain at Celtic park today. Mt90M issue 22 has 32 A4 pages for £2 and NTV issue 121 has 44 B5 size pages for £1.50. As you would expect, the focus for both mags this month are the matches in Barcelona and the beach party at the home of the Paris Buns. Click these to see a picture of Mt90M22 and a picture of NTV121. Click this link to see pictures and info on every Celtic fanzine published.

RANGERS YOUTH CUP SEMI-FINAL 02/04/04

Celtic Youth team lost 0-1 to Rangers Youth today at Barrowfield. An unofficial programme was issued in very small number - we hear that 75 copies were available. Click here to see a picture of the programme.

NEW CELTIC MEMORABILIA WEB SITE 01/04/04

More and more Celtic memorabilia Web site are appearing all the time and Ross Adams has a new site at http://www.freewebs.com/celticprogramme. The site is well designed in green and black and has some great content including a news section, a match review where Ross awards points to players for their performance in the match, programmes for sale, a guestbook and quiz and more. Click here to visit the site.

MARCH 2004

CELTS SET FOR Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D.

As we all already know, Celtic will play Spanish club Villarreal CF in the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup next month - 8th and 14th April. They scored 6 away goals in 4 games to get to the quarters, defeating Trabzonspor, Torpedo Moscow, Galatasaray and Roma on the way. Italian giants Roma were gubbed 3-2 on aggregate in the previous round and Villarreal are currently in 9th place in La Liga, 14 points behind our previous opponents, Barcelona. La Liga status is a relatively new experience for Villarreal as they only gained promotion to the top flight in Spain for the first time in the 1998/99 season. The club colours are yellow and blue and the team play at El Madrigal, a stadium of only 23,000 capacity, reduced to 17,500 for UEFA matches.

For the match in Spain, there will be two zones set aside for Celtic Supporters, tickets will be 60€ for Zone A and 40€ for Zone B and Villar have moved season ticket holders from their usual seats to accomodate the travelling Celtic fans. Previous UEFA Cup ties at El Madrigal have seen a match programme issued so we can expect an issue for the visit of Celtic. Click here to go to the Villarreal CF Web site.

GREEN, WHITE & BOLD ISSUE 3 28/03/04

The third isssue of the Green, White and Bold Celtic fanzine was on sale outside Easter Road at the Hibs SPL match last Sunday and was also available at the Rangers match today. The fanzine is only £1.50 for 40 Not The View size pages. It makes very interesting and amusing reading and no one deserving of abuse is missed out. Click here to see a bigger picture of the fanzine. If you want to see the other issues of this fanzine (and others), click here.

IT'S OVER - RANGERS SPL30 28/03/04

Rangers got their first goal of the season against Celtic today as Martin O'Neill's Barcelona heroes cantered to an easy 2-1 win at Ibrox. That makes it 5 wins in a row for the hoops against Rangers and it takes them 19 points in front of the sorry blues. Henrik Larsson scored his 33 goal of the season to put Celts ahead and Alan Thompson added another in the second half to end the contest. Rangers printed their usual match programme with the horror theme on the front cover. Click here to see a picture of a match ticket.

FC BARCELONA UEFA CUP 25/03/04

Because of a conflict between the sponsors of Barcelona and UEFA, no official programme was issued for Celtic's match at the Nou Camp. Two unofficial programmes were on sale - a Red pirate from the Spanish boys and a white supporters souvenir issue printed in Dublin. The red pirate was available in large numbers and most supporters managed to get it. The white pirate was more dificult to get as only 100 copies were printed and you could only get it at the Celtic end. Click here to see a picture of a ticket for the Nou Camp.

HIBERNIAN SPL29 21/03/04

Same old Celtic...always winning. Celtic had an easy 4-0 win against Hibs at Easter Road today before heading for Barcelona in the UEFA Cup return match. Stan Petrov and Henrik Larsson both struck twice and young Stephen McManus made his debut in defence before a poor 9,456 crowd. Hibs issued their usual match programme and click this for a picture of a match ticket.

NEW WEB SITES FOR CELTIC BADGE COLLECTORS 20/03/04

Two new online reference points for Celtic badge collectors are now live on the Web. The first, www.celticbadges.com was launched on St Patrick's day by David Hood and has over 600 badges on view already, with hundreds to be added over the next few weeks. The other site is the creation of William Mulholland. William's site - "The Home of CSC Badges" - displays the badges of hundreds of Celtic Supporters Clubs throughout the world. Both sites are well worth a look, even if you don't collect badges. If you collect badges, you may want to visit this Web site - The British Association of Football Badge Collectors (AFBC).

CELTIC USA TOUR - CHAMPIONSWORLD 20/03/05

Celtic return to America this July to play in the 2nd ChampionsWorld Series of matches against Roma, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. The tour is organised by New Jersey-based sports events promoter Charlie Stillitano, head man of ChampionsWorld. Eight other teams will take part MANCHESTER UNITED (England); CELTIC FC (Scotland); AC MILAN (Italy); CHELSEA (England); AS ROMA (Italy); LIVERPOOL (England); BAYERN MUNICH (Germany); FC PORTO (Portugal). At the start of the 2003/04 season, Celtic lost to Manchester United in Seattle and beat Boca Juniors in Cleveland, Ohio in the inaugural series.

Martin O'Neill and his hooooooped heroes will be away for 13 days, from 19 to 31 July. The Celtic players will have four days rest and light training at their base camp in Seattle before playing Chelsea in the first match on Saturday July 24 in the Seahawks Stadium where they met Man U last year. Next up is our UEFA Cup opponents from last season, Liverpool on Monday July 26 in the Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut, followed by Manchester United on Wednesday July 28 at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia and finally AS Roma in the SkyDome, Toronto on Saturday, July 31.

Lincoln Financial Field, the stadium where Celtic will take on Liverpool and A.C. Milan plays Chelsea, is the home of NFL football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Visit the stadium's Web site to take a Virtual Tour of the stadium.

The SkyDome is where Celtic will take on Roma. The stadium was built in 1989 at a cost of $500 million, is owned by Sportsco International and has a retractable roof like the Amsterdam ArenA and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The Toronto Bluejays and the Toronto Argonauts (football and baseball) play their home games on the AstroGrass surface. The stadium can accommodate 50,516 (baseball); 53,000 (football) spectators. Visit the stadium's Web site to take a Virtual Tour of the stadium.

The Seahawks Stadium in Seattle is where Celtic were beaten by Manchester United in this season's inaugural series.

If you would like to go and cheer the Bhoys on, you can get your tickets for the matches here.

UEFA SAY NO TO GOALKEEPERS APPEAL

UEFA have heard and rejected the appeal against Rab Douglas' UEFA match ban. Now there's a surprise. When have UEFA ever voted in favour of Celtic in these situations? Remember Rapid Vienna? The Celtic goalie will now miss the game in Barcelona on Thursday along with the sleekit Thiago Motto who was sent off along with Rab in the tunnel. This will mean a European start for the excellent young Stephen Marshall and we would like to wish him the best of luck in the biggest match of his life. There will be no official programme in Barcelona but there should be the usual unofficial issues from the Spanish pirateers. Barcelona don't print a programme for European games as there is a conflict between their own sponsors and UEFA's sponsors. If you are interested in match tickets, click here to see a picture of a ticket for the Nou Camp.

DUNDEE SPL27 ST PATRICK'S DAY 2004

Celtic played Dundee at Dens park tonight in what could be the last time the fixture is ever played there if the move to Tannadice or elsewhere goes through. The Celts scored twice through Petrov and Larsson to win 2-1 and move to 19 points ahead of Rangers in the league. Sebastian Kneissl scoring a late consolation for the financially stricken club. Dundee issued their usual type of match programme - 40 full colour pages for £2. Click at these links to see a copy of a match ticket and the official teamsheet.

alternative VIEW ISSUE 24 17/03/04

Issue 24 of the alternative VIEW magazine is on sale at your local outlet. For £2.50 you get 36 A4 pages in full colour with an interview with 70's hero Pat McCluskey, a letters page, a March/April fixtures calendar, many insightful articles and some adverts too. Click here to see the alternative VIEW section on this Web site.

GREAT CELTIC STRIKERS DANBURY PLATE 14/03/04

Danbury Mint have made another Celtic related fine porcelain plate. This time, it's a "Great Strikers" montage design. Included on the plate are Henrik Larsson, Jimmy McGrory, Jinky Johnstone, Bobby Lennox, Harry Hood, Kenny Dalgish and Chris Sutton. The plate has the club crest, is rimmed with 22-carat gold and costs £24.95. To order one call 0870 112 3711 or click to print an order form.

MOTHERWELL SPL28 14/03/04

A young Motherwell team played very well at Celtic Park today to get a 1-1 draw and end Celtic's run of consecutive SPL wins. Derek Adams scored a great goal to put Motherwell one up in 26 minutes and Celtic had to bring Henrik Larsson off the bench to equalise in the second half. The record is now 25 wins (in a row) and 2 draws from 27 matches. Celtic returned to the smaller sized match programme for the match and you can see a picture of the official teamsheet here. The Barcelona programme didn't sell-out on Thursday and copies were on sale in the Celtic shops and from programme sellers.

CELTIC v RANGERS UNDER 19'S POSTPONED

The Under 19's SPL Youth League match against Rangers on Saturday has been cancelled because of the death of one the Celtic coaches. The match was due to be played at Murray Park, Auchenhowie on Saturday March 13th and a match programme has already been printed for the match. Click here for a picture of the official teamsheet for the Celtic v Partick Thistle Under 21's League match.

FC BARCELONA UEFA CUP 11/03/04

The dream of Gothenburg in May was still alive last night as Martin O'Neill's hooped heroes beat Spanish giants FC Barcelona 1-0 at a packed Celtic Park. Celtic returned to the A4 sized match programme and it appeared to be a sell-out. Three other official souvineers were available at the Celtic shops - a match pennent, a match mug with the club logos and match dates and a match flag (sorry no picture) with the club logos and match dates. Click here for a picture of a match ticket.

RUSSIAN SUDUVA REPRINTS 09/03/04

We have been informed by some collectors that they have been offered reprinted issues of the rare Suduva away programme from a forger in Russia. He contacts collectors on ebay's auction site that he thinks are Celtic collectors and sends them an email offer of 10 copies for £150. These Russian copies have been appearing on ebay recently with no indication from the sellers that they are reprints and are fetching in excess of £50. For the last few months, almost every time a copy of the programme was up for auction on ebay. I wrote to the seller asking them to confirm if it was a reprint or not. NOT ONE of them answered me but I bet they laughed all the way to the bank. If you have bought a copy of this programme recently, send it back to the dealer and demand your money back. They are all at it!!!!!!!!!! If you want to know how to spot a reprint, click here.

RANGERS SCOTTISH CUP ROUND 5 - 07/03/04

Celtic knocked Rangers out of the Scottish cup today and ended their interest in football for the rest of the season. Already out of the League Cup and trailing Celtic in the league by 16 points, this defeat must put Alex McLeish's future at Ibrox in some doubt. Next week's radio phone-in shows will be jammed with calls for his head and all because of oor Henrik. The King of Kings pounced on a loose ball from the shaky Rangers defence to score from close in and put Celtic into the semi-final of the cup. This was Henrik's 299th game in the famous Hoops but incredibly only his first goal against Rangers in the Scottish Cup. That's them done with, now for the big one - Barcelona.

Celtic issued a sell-out match programme in the usual style and numbers. Click here for a picture of a match ticket and Paradise Windfall.

UEFA CUP DRAW 04/03/04 - CELTIC verus FC BARCELONA

Celtic were paired with Spanish giants Barcelona in today's UEFA Cup draw in Nyon. It is almost 40 years since the two teams last/first met in European competition and that was in the 2nd round of the 1964/65 Fair Cities Cup. In the first leg in the Nou Camp, 25,000 fans saw Barcelona win 3-1 with John Hughes scoring Celtic's solitary goal. In the second match, a very disciplined performance got them a 0-0 draw at Celtic Park and the tie overall. Let's hope that doesn't happen this time.

As well as the fourth round draw, UEFA also made the draw for the quarter- and semi-finals at the same time. It gets a bit confusing at this point but here's what happend. If Celtic manage to dispose of Barcelona, they will meet Villarreal or Roma in the Q/F. If they manage to negotiate the quarters, either (Bordeaux or Bruges) or (Gençlerbirgili or Valencia) awaits us in the semi-finals. From there it's just a short hop, skip and a jump to Gothenburg and this season's final. Sound easy? We could have to beat 3 La Liga teams to get there. Gulp! Barcelona don't issue a match programme or paper for European matches. Click here for the Barcelona Web site.

FK TEPLICE UEFA CUP 3/03/04

Last night's UEFA Cup tie in Teplice produced an official match programme and a pirate programme produced in the Czeck Rep. The official programme is A4 in size and has 12 glossy pages in full colour for approximately 42 pence. The pirate has 12 folded A4 pages, full colour covers, grayscale pages inside and is a very nice production. Very few copies were brought back and unless more appear, this pirate will be very rare indeed.

THE CELT - OBITUARY EDITION 2004, ISSUE 77

The latest issue of the excellent The Celt magazine is out. This is a special obituary edition and has a picture of the great Celtic goalkeeper of the 1950's, John Bonnar, who sadly passed away in January 2004. It is as good a read as you'll get and there are 6 issues per year at a cost £1 per issue but you can subscribe at a rate of 4 issues for £5 (inc p&p). To subscribe, send your payment to E.A. MacBride, 31, Harrowby Lane, GRANTHAM, NG31 9HY. We are creating a page dedicated to The Celt that is under construction at the moment but you can click here to see what is there already.

FK TEPLICE UEFA CUP 3/03/04 - WE'RE THROUGH

Celtic are through to the last 16 in the UEFA Cup after a battling performance in the Czech Republic. The Hoops lost the match 0-1 but the 3-0 win in Glasgow last week was enough to win the tie. The draw for the remaining rounds up to the final will be made in Nyon tomorrow at noon and we will have the full details of Celtic's draw here along with details of all the memorabilia from tonigh't match. An official match programme was definitely issued and we have heard that there should be a localy produced pirate (and possibly a Spanish pirate) on sale. Click here for a picture of an FK Teplice away ticket.

FEBRUARY 2004

LIVINGSTON SPL26 29/02/04 - 25-IN-A-ROW

While Alex McLeish's flops were losing 2-0 to Dundee Utd live on BBC Rangers, Martin's O'God's stars were turning on the style to beat Livingstone 5-1 at Celtic Park. With this win, Celtic have broken their own record of 24 SPL wins in a row and moved 16 points in front of you know who. Celtic issued the usual type of match programme. Click this for a picture of a match ticket and Windfall ticket.

MORE THAN 90 MINS MARCH ISSUE 21 (29/02/04)

Issue 21 of the Irish based Mt90M Celtic fanzine was on sale at Celtic Park today. Jackie McNamara on the front cover, more articles covering our hobby than any other Celtic magazine and a great read for £2. Click here to see a bigger picture. Click on this link to see every issue Mt90M fanzine and more info.

REPRINT SUDUVA AWAY ON ebay

A possible reprinted Suduva away programme has sold on ebay for £63. That's okay for the person buying this reprint - at least they have been informed by this reputable seller that it may be a reprint (although this is not clear from the sellers description and it left up to the buyer to decide to gamble or not). The real problem arises when this is eventually sold on as an original. I have seen one of these reprints and it is very difficult to tell the difference between them.

If you don't have an original and you want to know what these differences are, click here for more info on how to spot a reprint. Note that the seller informs that this copy "DEFINITELY came from Latvia" (we assume he means Lithuania). If this is so, it is an original as the reprinted versions are being printed in Scotland by dealers here. Don't believe the stories being circulated about a second batch of reprinted programmes coming in from Lithuania. I have heard 4 different attempts at trying to explain them. It simply didn't happen and the stories are being circulated by the reprinters to confuse the situation and cover their tracks. The Celtic Collectors Club also have some information on this programme here.

GREEN, WHITE & BOLD ISSUE 2 OUT

The 2nd issue of the new Green, White & Bold Celtic fanzine is out and you can by it from the fanzine's Web site or at Celtic Park before the FK Teplice match on Thursday. This month's cover features the de Boer twins who, for some reason, seem to be the flavour of the month. Bigger picture. Click here to see pictures of other Celtic fanzines. Click here to see the back cover.

NOT THE VIEW MARCH ISSUE 120 (26/02/04)

The latest issue of the NOT THE VIEW Celtic fanzine was on sale at tonight's match against FK Teplice. The fanzine cost £1.50 for 44 pages. Issue 2 of the new Green, White & Bold Celtic fanzine was also on sale but was extremely difficult to find. If this group want to be successful, they will have to get their act together regarding how the fanzine is sold or it may go down the drain faster than the Ibrox title challenge. Issue 21 of More than 90 mins fanzine will be on sale at the Livingston match on Sunday.

FK TEPLICE UEFA CUP 26/02/04

Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton scored to give Celtic a 3-0 advantage to take to the Czech Republic next week. Click to see a picture of the match programme for the game. Click for a picture of a match ticket, official team sheet, friendship pennant and match badge.

Click here for a picture of an FK Teplice away ticket.

BLACK FOREST CELTIC SUPPORTERS CLUB BADGE FOR SALE

The German Celtic Supporters Club, Black Forest CSC, has designed a new pin badge for their club members and are selling off the excess. Joe Gilhooley of the Celtic Collectors Club has kindly agreed to sell them on behalf of the club to save currency exchange problems. If you are interested in buying one, please click here to get payment details. All money goes back to the CSC.

FOUR GAMES TO GO-THENBURG (26/02/04)

By Thursday 4th March we will know the three teams that Celtic will have to defeat if they are to play in this season's UEFA Cup final in the Nya Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg on the 19th of May. The draw for the fourth round, quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland at 1 pm GMT. Sixteen teams go into the hat - let's hope Celtic can overcome FK Teplice to be one of them. They will be split into two groups of eight, with half the teams seeded and the other half unseeded for the fourth round only - no seeding will be used in the quarter-finals and semi-finals draw.

A RARITY ON ebay (24/02/04)

How many times have you seen the word "rare" or the phrase "very rare" used to describe a programme for sale on ebay's auction site, only to realise that it is in fact a common issue? Okay, there's at least one on every page but there is a truly rare Celtic issue on auction as you read this (Ends at 04-Mar at 10:28). The programme is from a match played at Celtic Park on 26 February 1931 against Aberdeen and has the immortal John Thompson in the team line ups. If you want to bid or just see a picture of the programme, click here.

RECORD BREAKING CELTS WIN 24-IN-A-ROW 22/02/04

Celtic smashed Morton's 40 years old Scottish record of 23 wins in a row with a 4-1 win at Firhill today. Chris Sutton and Stan Varga scored twice each to mark Celtic's twenty fourth victory in a row. The team that set the new record was - Douglas, Kennedy, Varga, Balde, McNamara, Petrov, Lennon, Pearson, Thompson, Larsson, Sutton. Thistle issued their usual match programme and you can click this to see a picture of a match ticket.

alternative VIEW FEBRUARY ISSUE 23 18/02/04

As promised in their January issue, Issue 23 of the alternative VIEW magazines arrived at your local newsagents today. The alternative Celtic magazine now appears to be 'back on the rails' after their brush with insolvency last year. And, with the rumours of the demise of the Club's official trumpet the Celtic View circulating, this could be their chance to become No1. The most expensive of the Celtic publications available, the mag offers 36 A4 pages of great reading in full colour. The March issue is due out on St. Patrick's Day - Wednesday 17th. Click here to see every issue of alt VIEW.

DUNDEE UNITED home SPL24 14/02/04

Celtic struggled to a 2-1 victory over Dundee United at Celtic Park today but managed to maintain their recording breaking run of 23 SPL wins in a row. Celtic issued their usual match programme in normal numbers. Click this to see a copy of the official teamsheet.

DUNFERMLINE away SPL23 11/02/04

Celtic reached 22 SPL wins in a row with a 4-1 victory at Dunfermline to maintain their 11-point lead at the top of the table. The scorers were Larsson (2), Varga and Thompson. Pars thought that their plastic pitch would give them a big enough advantage to win the match but they'll need more than that to beat Martins Marvels. A match programme was on sale in the usual numbers for £2.50. Click this to see a picture of a match ticket.

Here's a wee song you may find yourself singing at the next Celtic match. Sung to the tune of "Nice one Cyril, Nice one son". One's called Ronald, one's called Frank. One missed a penalty, the other one's a W@*%

NEW FKB KAUNAS PIN BADGE

A Champions League pin badge for the FBK Kaunas has turned up. The badge is bigger than the usual pins for the CL and is likely to be from Russia like the bigger sized Suduva badge that was available for the FK Suduva European ties in 2002. On the subject of badges, the Celtic Collectors Club has loads of badges on show at their Web site and Danny Jacobs of Glasgow Programmes.com is now selling badges and fanzines from his programmes stall at Celtic Park on match days and his Web site at www.glasgowprogrammes.com.

THE CELT - WINTER 2004, ISSUE 76

The latest issue of The Celt magazine is out. As far as we know, The Celt can only be bought from the editor of the magazine by post. For £1 you get 40 folded A4 pages full of excellent content. The Celt is not a fanzine but more a historical record of Glasgow Celtic FC. There are 6 issues per year at a cost £1 per issue but you can subscribe at a rate of 4 issues for £5 (inc p&p). To subscribe, send your payment to E.A. MacBride, 31, Harrowby Lane, GRANTHAM, NG31 9HY.

We are creating a page dedicated to The Celt that is under construction at the moment but you can click here to see what is there already.

HEARTS away SCOTTISH CUP ROUND 4 ANNIHILATION 07/02/04

Martin O'Neill's hooped heroes absolutely destroyed a brutal Hearts team that were only interested in hurting Celtic's classy stars. They were given a football lesson at their own midden as Stan Petrov scored twice and Henrik Larsson proved he is the King of Kings by coming back from another of Webster's horror tackles to score Celtic's third goal in the 96th minute. Two of the worst offenders - Maybury and Hartley - were sent off for a style of play that would get them arrested anywhere other than a football park and Man of the Match, Neil Lennon had to suffer the usual sectarian abuse from their Nazi saluting supporters. I wonder if cry baby Levein will bring out a video of his player elbowing Neil Lennon? Doubtful! Hearts issued a match programme and here is a picture of a match ticket - let's hope the next one's for Murrayfield. ROBINSON MUST STAY!!!!!!!

You can still get Issue 1 of the new Celtic fanzine Green, White & Bold. It was being sold at Tynecastle today so if you haven't got one yet, you should be able to buy it at the next home match..

SUMMER FRIENDLIES IN THE USA

Glasgow Celtic are going to Toronto and Boston. Celtic will play two friendlies against European clubs in Toronto and Boston between July 25 and Aug. 1. There is no word of where the Toronto game will take place, although the Toronto Blue Jays SkyDome would seem the only logical venue. If SkyDome is to be used, a temporary grass field would have to be put down. The Blue Jays are at home July 25 through to July 28 before leaving to play in Tampa on July 30. They return to SkyDome on Aug. 2 for an afternoon game. The Celtic visit is being organized by Champions World, the New Jersey-based promoter that put together last summer's successful tour of North America.

MORE THAN 90 MINS FEBRUARY 2004 ISSUE 20

The February issue of the Mt90M fanzine was on sale at today's Kilmarnock match. This issue has 32, A4 pages on heavy glossy paper (heavier than usual) and includes a tribute to exCeltic goalkeeper John Bonnar who died recently after a battle with illness. Joe Gilhooley of the Celtic Collectors Club writes more articles of interest to collectors including one on the origins of "The Shamrock" a 1960's fanzine. Click here for a picture of the front cover. Click here for a picture of every issue of Mt90M. Check out their new Web site at www.morethan90minutes.com.

PROGRAMME MONTHLY Number 275

The February issue of Programme Monthly is out. It has all the usual features and articles but the most interesting of these explains the emegence of the new Hibs U21 issue that began with the one against Celtic U21's on 29/12/03. The programme is the work of a Young Hibs fan and all profits from the sales go to the club's "Stand Up and Be Counted" campaign (whatever that is) and the youth system.

SUMMER 2004 FRIENDLIES IN THE USA

Celtic are going to Toronto and Boston in the Summer of 2004. They will play two friendlies against European clubs in Toronto and Boston between July 25 and Aug. 1. There is no word of where the Toronto game will take place, although the Toronto Blue Jays SkyDome would seem the only logical venue. If SkyDome is to be used, a temporary grass field would have to be put down. The Blue Jays are at home July 25 through to July 28 before leaving to play in Tampa on July 30. They return to SkyDome on Aug. 2 for an afternoon game. The Celtic visit is being organized by Champions World, the New Jersey-based promoter that put together last summer's successful tour of North America.

"SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD" - HENRIK LARSSON

Show Racism the Red Card is an anti-racist charity which was established in January 1996 with the aim of using Professional footballers as anti-racist role models. If you visit their Web site, you will be able to read what the King of Kings has to say on the subject as well as download some freebies.

NOT THE VIEW 119 FEBRUARY ISSUE

The latest issue of NTV was available at Celtic Park today. This issue has actually been out since 31st December but this was the first chance to buy at a home match since . In this issue Millergate, hand of god (part 3), match reports, farewell then steve guppy and lots more. Click here for a bigger picture. Click here to see every NTV issued (almost).

JANUARY 2004

NEW CELTIC FANZINE ON SALE TODAY 31/01/04

A brand new Celtic fanzine called "GREEN, WHITE & BOLD" was being sold at today's match against Kilmarnock. Four hundred copies were printed and every one of them sold (but you can still get copies from the Web site and at the next home match). The fanzine has a full colour card cover and twenty black and white pages inside with colour used very sparingly. It looks like a winner with lots of good content and an editor called "Mad Cyril" they can't lose. Good luck to their editorial team and lets hope it last longer than some other Celtic fanzines.The price was £1.50. Click here for a picture of the fanzine cover. The next issue is due out on 26 February. Web site at www.greenwhiteandbold.com. All other Celtic fanzines can be viewed here.

KILMARNOCK SPL22 Sat 31/01/04

Celtic issued a match programme with a reduced print run for today's match. Click here for a picture of a match ticket, Paradise Windfall ticket and the official teamlines. Celtic stretched their lead at the top of the SPL to 14 points with a 5-1 win and goals from Didier Agathe, John Hartson (2), Henrik Larsson and Stephen Pearson.

ABERDEEN SPL21 24/01/04

The Hoops were setting more records today as they won their 20th league match in row at Pittodrie 3-1. Although the young Aberdeen team played well, Celtic were just too good scoring through Petrov, Larsson and Stephen Pearson (1st goal for Celtic). Celtic remain unbeaten in the SPL and it is difficult to see any team getting the better of them. Aberdeen issued a 64 page match programme with a change in style and size from their last Celtic issue in their Centenary season in 2003. Click this to see a copy of a match ticket.

HEARTS SPL21 24/01/04

Sectarian bigots wearing maroon and white (not a minority as the Scottish Press would have us believe) with money to throw away and a guy that wears specs and thinks he can see better than everybody else (even after playing back his own video footage), ten bookings and one goal to the Celtic. It's great to beat them at their own midden. Enough said.

alternative VIEW FEBRUARY ISSUE 22 (21/01/04)

The latest issue of the aV Celtic magazine is on sale at your local stockist. For £2.50 you'll get 36 A4 pages in full colour crammed with Celtic related articles and photo's. Articles include - Millergate, Chris Sutton on his England chances and smarter than the average bear John (yogi) Hughes answers 46 quick questions. It's a great read and the next issue is due out on Wednesday 18 February. Click here for a picture of the magazine cover.

ROSS COUNTY SCOTTISH CUP 10/01/04

Celtic drew Hearts at Tynecastle in the next round of the cup after beating Ross County 2-0 in today's 3rd round match at Celtic Park. Only the bottom tier of the ground was open today and Celtic printed only 5,000 copies of the match programme.Click here for a picture of a match ticket and a Paradise Windfall ticket.

RANGERS SPL19 (03/01/04)

Celtic scored three against the darkest of the dark forces today to move 11 points in front in the SPL title race. Stilian Petrov, Stanislav Varga and Alan Thompson grabbed the goals which gave Celtic the three points. If there is a better player than either Alan Thomson or Chris Sutton available to the English international football manager, I have yet to see him. Both players were immense during the action today and we vote Chris Sutton as man of the match. Celtic issued their usual match programme - click here to see it.

MORE THAN 90 MINS JANUARY 2004 ISSUE 19

The latest issue of the excellent Mt90M fanzine was on sale at today's match (first sold at the Hibs match 27/12). The fanzine is good value at £2 and must be one of the best football fanzines in Europe. This may seem like a wild claim at first but the fact is that Celtic have at least three dedicated fanzines that are better than anything available for other clubs. As a collector of Celtic memorabilia, I have to say that Mt90M covers our hobby superbly with many interesting and informative articles about collecting and I hope that they continue this trend. This issue has 32, A4 glossy pages including a Champions League post mortem, a tribute to Jim Kennedy and Joe Gilhooley of the Celtic Collectors Club writes some articles that collectors shouldn't miss. Click here for a picture of the front cover. Click here for a picture of every issue of Mt90M.

EBAY AUCTION DESCRIPTIONS ARE A JOKE

Have you noticed how a very large number of the Celtic items offered for auction on ebay are described as "Rare" or "Very Rare". There is no doubt that some of these descriptions are from people who are just simply misinformed and have no idea what a particular Celtic item is worth. Others however, are out to con you into paying more for an item than you should. For example, right now on ebay somebody is trying to pass off the Jimmy Johnstone/Bobby Lennox testimonial programme as "Extremely Rare " in the auction title and as "an exceptionally rare programme" in the auction description. If I were asked to name a programme that is more common than this issue, I would struggle. Now it could be that this is a genuine mistake so we have sent the seller an email about it and will let you know how abusive his answer is. In the meantime, if you are new to collecting Celtic things or are not sure how rare a programme is, feel free to send an email for our opinion before bidding. The truth is that VERY few genuinely rare Celtic items ever come up for sale on ebay so you should be suspicious when a Celtic programme is described as VERY RARE and don't be taken in. Click here to see the JJ/BL auction described.

DECEMBER 2003

HIBERNIAN SPL UNDER 21'S LEAGUE (29/12/03)

A group of Hibs fans have published a programme for the Hibernian U21's versus Celtic U21's SPU21'sL match at on the 29th of December. It is a nice effort considering it is the first of what is to be a regular issue for ALL Hibs U21's games (home and away). Two A4 pages, folded to make eight, it has full colour covers with black on a white sheet inside. There is a colour photograph of two Hibs players on the front and the teams are on the back page. Inside, page 1 has three adverts and there is a welcome message on page 2. The middle two pages give a report on Hibs U21's last game against Dunfermline and opposite is a very complimentary article on Celtic U21 team. The last two pages have the league tables, player statistics and the Hibs U21 fixture list. The fixture list shows that the young Celts will play Hibs again on March 22nd, so look out for the next Hibs/Celtic U21 issue. The programme was only sold at the Hibs end and in very small numbers. Click here to see a bigger picture.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 118 (27/12/03)

The latest issue of the NTV fanzine was on sale at Celtic Park today although the date on the cover shows January 3rd 2004. The NTV is still great value at only £1.50 for forty four, B5 size pages full of amusing and interesting content. The lower price (compared to the more glossy fanzines) is mainly due to the use of black and white printing on ordinary photocopy standard paper (except for the glossy, full-colour covers). Click to see a picture of the front cover.

HIBERNIAN SPL18 (27/12/03)

Celtic beat Hibs 6-0 today at Celtic Park. Henrik Larsson scored to become the 3rd top scorer ever (equal with Stevie Chalmers) in Celtic's history and Hartson (2), Sutton (2) and Petrov scored the others. Celtic issued a match programme in usual numbers. Click here to see a picture of a match ticket and Windfall ticket.

TICTALK 5 (22/12/03) - The Celtic World Huddle Club Magazine

If you are a Celtic season ticket holder or a Celtic World Huddle Club member, you will have received your free copy of Huddle Club magazine today. Issue 5 has a drawing of the Celtic player's huddle including Santa on the front cover of the twenty A4 pages in full-colour. The magazine started at the beginning of the 02/03 Championship winning season along with the club itself and is distribute free, three times per year, to all members. Click at this link to see a copy of the current issue. You can also see pictures of all five issues here.

MOTHERWELL away SPL17 21/12/03

THE KING OF KINGS TRIBUTE SPECIAL

The Daily Record and Sunday Mail have published a sixty four page magazine tribute to Henrik Larsson in his final season at Celtic. The magazine cost £3.50 and looks suspiciously like a Celtic View. This is not really surprising as both publications are printed by the same company - First Press Publishing.Although it is a Daily Record production, it is an great reference for the King's reign in Paradise. It covers the great ones career here from the first day at Easter Road when he made his debut against Hibs with his dreadlocks hair style, through the horror injury season, the European adventures and onto Seville. It is not one to be missed, so get yours soon. Click for picture of the front cover.

HIBERNIAN away CIS Cup q/f 18/12/03.

HIBERNIAN away CIS Cup q/f 18/12/03. Click for a bigger picture and more info.

alternative VIEW JANUARY ISSUE 24 (17/12/03)

The January issue of the unofficial Celtic magazine alternative VIEW is on sale now at your local newsagent. The mag cost £2.50 for thirty six A4 pages in full-colour and is arguably the best Celtic read available (books aside). As usual, this issue is full of very interesting articles and rumour mongering. Click here for a bigger picture of the front cover.

CELTIC LEGENDS SCRATCH CARDS (14/12/03)

Celtic Development Pools Limited are selling a series of twenty five scratch cards from the pools office if you are interested in collecting this kind of thing. Each card is dedicated to a Celtic playing legend from every era in Celtics history and includes Jimmy Johnstone, Jock Stein and Henrik Larsson. Click here to see every card.

DUNDEE SPL16 (13/12/03)

Celtic issued the usual league-type match programme for today's match against Dundee for £2. Torrential rain made it difficult to keep a programme in good condition but there should be plenty left for you to buy one at the next home match.

OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (10/12/03)

The news about programmes issued for Celtic's match in Lyon is that there was an official programme in newspaper format and a pirate programme from the Spanish pirate boys sold at the airport and the stadium. The official issue was issued for free but was difficult to get at the Celtic end and the pirate programme cost the usual 5 euros.

Here is a picture of a complete match ticket. We have also heard that there may have been a second version of the Spanish pirate written in French and there may have been a second pirate altogether but this is unconfirmed. More on this later. Click here for a picture of the newspaper issue in actual size - large file, slow download if using a modem.

LIVINGSTON SPL15 (06/12/03)

Celtic travelled to Livingston today and won an exciting match 2-0 against a good Livy team. The match was shown live on Setanta Sport but every seat in the Celtic part of the ground was sold.

Livingston issued a 48 page match programme for £2.50 (this looks to be the new price at away matches these days) with David Fernandez on the front cover. Click at these links to see a copy of the match programme and a match ticket for the Celtic end.

PARTICK THISTLE CIS CUP (04/12/03)

Easily the most boring game of the season but Celtic reserves moved the club into the next round by beating Thistle 2-0. Celtic play Hibs in the next round with a semi-final tie against an Ibrox XI for the winners. Semi-final ties are due to be played at Hampden on Tuesday, 3rd February and Thursday, 5th February. Thistle issued a 48 page match programme for £2.50 that had 21 pages of adverts and the rest of it just absolute rubbish. Click to see a picture of an unused match ticket.

NOVEMBER 2003

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IN LYON

Celtic will hold a Press Conference at 2.00pm in the Hilton Hotel in Lyon and then train at the Stade Municipal de Gerland at 6.00pm. As we all know,. Celtic are without Alan Thompson for this match. The yellow card against FC Bayern was his third of the season and entailed a one-match suspension. Chris Sutton is within one yellow card of a one-match suspension

Here is how tomoroow's matches will be decided if two or more teams finish the group stage level on points, the following criteria will be used in order to determine group standings: (a) Higher number of points from games involving the teams in question (b) Superior goal difference from games involving the teams in question (c) Higher number of goals scored away from home in games involving the teams in question (d) Superior goal difference in all group matches played (e) Higher number of goals scored in the six matches played (f) Club/national association coefficient based on the five previous seasons.

JIM KENNEDY RIP (30/11/03)

There was some very sad news today that ex-Celt and Scottish Internationalist Jim Kennedy has died. Celtic supporters of the 50's and 60's will remember Jim with great fondness as he always gave his best for his beloved Celtic. Born in Johnstone Renfrewshire, Jim signed for Celtic in November 1955 and made his debut against Partick Thistle on the 23rd April 1956 at Firhill. He went on to play for 10 seasons during which he captained the side when Billy McNeill was unavailable. During his time at Celtic Jim played no fewer than 235 games including Celtic's first ever European match against Valencia. In 1963, at the age of 30, Jim was capped against Wales and then England at Hampden in a 1-0 win for Scotland watched by 134,000 spectators. After his playing career was over, Jim remained at the park as ticket manager until he retired to being just a supporter. He followed his team, home and away, until just a couple of weeks ago when illness forced him into hostpital.

Everyone concerned with this Web site would like to offer their deepest sympathy to Jim's wife and family. The funeral take places at St Aidin's Chapel in Johnstone on Friday 5th December at 10 am.

PARTICK THISTLE SPL14 (29/11/03)

Celtic had to come from behind at The Park today after Celtic fan James Grady put thistle ahead in 12 minutes. On a day better suited to ducks than footballers, The King (who else?) pulled one back in the 23rd minute and Chris Sutton, continuing his fine scoring touch, scored one before half-time and another in the 2nd half to put the pressure back on Rangers. Celtic issued a 40 page match programme at £2. Click at these links for a picture of the official teamsheet and match ticket.

SCORING: AN EXPERTS GUIDE (29/11/03)

A leaflet advertising Frank McAvennie's autobiography SCORING:An Expert's Guide was handed out before the match today. The ad was just to let you all know that Frankie Bhoy will be at W.H.Smiths in the Forge Shopping Centre on 13th Dec (from 12 noon) and will sign every copy of the book that you buy. All proceeds from the book to go towards Frank's next treasure hunt.

BAYERN MUNICH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP A (25/11/03)

No goals tonight but the one point gained takes Celtic to the top of Group A. Celtic issued another A4 size programme for tonight's match for £3. Continuing the series of action photos in the middle of a very dark background, this one has Sutton, Agathe and Larsson celebrating the King's early goal against Anderlecht in Glasgow. Click these links to see a picture of the match programme and the match ticket.

More than 90 Mins issue 18 (25/11/03)

The latest issue of the Mt90M fanzine was on sale at tonight's Champions League match against Bayern. The cover has Neil Lennon congratulating Liam Miller scoring for the Hoops. The mag costs £2 and had Thirty two, A4 colour pages. Click this link for a bigger picture of the front cover.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 117 (25/11/03)

Yet another fanzine on sale at the Bayern game - they seem to come thick and fast these days but the quality is not the same as it was in the dark ages of the old board. For example, Kelly, Grant and White used to get absolute abuse for the way they ran our club but the current lot of bunglars are hardly ever mentioned in any of the fanzines these days - even when they waste more money than the old board ever dreamed of having in the biscuit tin. At least this one is only £1.50 compaired to the £2 for Mt90M and £2.50 for the alt VIEW.

DUNDEE UNITED SPL13 (22/11/03)

Dundee United issued a 40 page, full colour match programme for the match at Tannadice for £2. The programme was available in the usual numbers so should be easy to get hold of. The match was another walkover for Celtic as they scored five (3 for Sutton, 2 for the King), conceding only one to the Arabs late in the match. See a copy of a match ticket.

ORIGINAL SUDUVA AWAY PROGRAMME - BARGAIN PRICE

An original Suduva away programme (not one of the marked reprints you can now buy for £10) is being sold on ebay and it looks like it will go at a fraction of the price it was fetching before the inaccurate article regarding reprints of the programme appeared in the September issue of Programme Monthly. The article falsely claimed that hundreds of copies had been brought back by supporters attending the Kaunas match. Before the PM work of fiction, the programme had fetched almost £300 and at the time of writing the copy being sold on ebay is sitting at £26.00. Make no mistake this programme is still very rare and the person selling the reprints version has promised to mark each copy he sells as a reprint issue. Read more about this story at the Celtic Collectors Club.

NEW JIMMY JOHNSTONE VIDEO / DVD (11/11/03)

The first film for at least 10 years about the greatest Celt ever - Jimmy (Jinky) Johnstone - is about to be released called "Lord of the Wing". Jinky has a Web site dedicated to him and you can buy your own copy of his video / DVD from it. The site is worth visiting even if you don't buy a copy as it contains info and stats on jinky's career, an article and picture archive and a trailer for the film. A great one for the Christmas Celtic sock. Web site at www.jimmyjohnstone.com/

"My Search for Celtic's John" - by Tom Greig

Author Tom Greig has just published his new Celtic book which looks at the personal life of John Thomson the legendary goalkeeper of the 20's and 30's. As we all know, John was killed while playing for Celtic at the very young age of 22 but by that time he had already played for Celtic 211 times and was a Celtic and Scotland legend.You can buy the book online at The Thompson Legend Web site for £14 (inc p+p) and a percentage of all profits from the sale will be donated to a Motor Neurone Disease charity. If you prefer not to buy the book online, send a cheque for £14 to - Mail Box 635, Claymore House, 149 Kilmarnock Road, GLASGOW, G41 3JA.

CELTIC BOBBLEHEADS BY BOBBLE DOBBLES

Have you seen any of these things yet? They are made by a company called Bobble Dobbles™ owned by American corporation Alexander Global. The figures are made of formed plastic standing 7 inches tall and there are at least 5 Celtic figures available with the new Carling logo (there is also an NTL logo version from last season) on the strips - Balde, Larsson, Hartson, Lennon and Sutton. The bobble part comes from the way that the heads are made to move (bobs from side to side). The Celtic figures can only be bought from retail outlets (like the Celtic Shops, Woolworth's and WH Smith) but you can visit the home page for their Web site here or click on the image above to go straight to the Celtic page on their site.

BIASED REPORTING AT THE FOOTY MAD WEB SITE (19/11/03)

Ever heard of a plonker called Mark Dingwall? He writes for a Web site called FootyMad. We came across his article on the recent U21's Celtic v Rangers match at at the Excelsior, New Broomfield. Click here to visit the site and read his interpretation of the classy Celtic bhoys easy 3-1 victory over the blue hordes. See if you can guess which team Dingbat supports.

alternative VIEW Issue 20 (18/11/03)

Okay, last month we said that the alternative VIEW had been reborn as a bimonthly after disappearing under mysterious circumstances but it now appears to have become a monthly issue. The front cover describes this one as "Monthly December 2003 Issue 20". Ah well there's nothing quite like consistency for building up a customer base and confidence in the product. This issue has thirty six A4, full colour pages and some great articles including - a Davie Hay interview, a letters page that doesn't look like it's been censored by Brian Quinn and a King Henrik Larsson poster. We hope this magazine makes it because it's about the real Celtic FC, it offers competition to the Celtic View and is also one of the best fanzines around.

THE CELTIC VIEW

Issue 19. Ross Wallace on the front cover. Click the picture for a bigger version. Click this for the Celtic View page.

SAN FRANCISCO v CELTIC 1957 PROGRAMME (14/11/03)

A copy of the match programme for the 1957 North American tour match against San Francisco has sold on ebay for £204. The programme was described in the following way - "has a few very small marks on cover and right hand corner has a small crease, otherwise in excellent condition." The programme attracted 10 bids, 8 of these from unique bidders. Click to see the image that was part of the description. Minutes after the SF programme finished, an even older Celtic item - "Celtic Football Guide 1933-34" - sold for £64 with 10 bids.

HOME FARM SELECT 1954 FRIENDLY PROGRAMME

A copy of the match programme for the friendly game between a Home Farm Selected XI and Glasgow Celtic on 19/5/1954 at Dalymount Park, Dublin, Ireland. has sold on ebay for £46.50. The programme was described by the seller from Ireland in the following way - "Good condition programme, has only heavy centre crease down middle and team changes written in on the back page. Otherwise in good condition for its age." The programme attracted 8 bids from 4 unique bidders. Click to see the image that was part of the description. The sale had a counter which registered 68 visitors.

COWDENBEATH UNDER 19's (11/11/03)

Cowdenbeath produced an very nice 20 page match programme for their Scottish Youth Cup match against Celtic U19's. The full colour, semi-gloss cover is themed in the Brazilian blue and yellow for the backgound and text with the Blue Brasilians' Club crest in the centre of four match photo's. The inside pages are in black and white on photocopy quality paper and contained a players profile page, a complete record of both clubs in the Scottish Youth Cup, an article on players that have kicked a ba' for both teams and some advert pages. Click here for a bigger picture.

DUNFERMLINE SPL12 (8/11/03)

Celtic returned to their smaller 40 page match programme for today's 5-0 victory over the Pars. Here is a picture of a match ticket and Paradise Windfall ticket. For more info on this game, click here to go to this season's Dunfermline page.

ST MIRREN 1958 SCOTTISH CUP SEMI PROGRAMME (08/11/03)

A copy of the 1958 SC semi-final programme has sold for the (almost) unbelievable price of £42.50 on ebay. The programme condition was described as "absolute mint". Firstly, a programme is either in mint condition or it is not. For a programme to be described as mint, it should be in the same condition as when it rolled off the printer's hardware. If it isn't, then it cannot be described as mint, with or without a prefix. If accurate, the description would make us believe that it was one of a full, unopened box discovered last year because of the refurbishment of Hampden Park. When this box of brand new programmes was discovered by Andy Mitchell - then the Head of Communications at Hampden -, he decided to offer them free to collectors through Programme Monthly. You had to be quick to get one as I found out after opening his letter of apology to read that he had been inundated by requests for a free copy. Looks like this could be one of them but, not being one of the rarest progs to get, the price it reached is absolutely staggering.

DYNAMO KIEV 1967 EUROPEAN CUP PROGRAMME (07/11/03)

A programme from the 1967 (4/10/67) European Cup against Dynamo Kiev in Kiev sold on ebay for £103.75 . The programme was described by the seller from Israel in the following way - "Programme has a vertical crease, and slight fraying on the spine but is otherwise in good condition. Honest description of condition prevents misunderstandings later." The programme attracted 13 bids from 7 unique bidders. This is not the highest price that this programme has fetched on ebay as it was previousely sold for over £250.

FIREWORKS NIGHT IN PARADISE (05/11/03)

Larsson, Miller then Sutton put a rocket up the Anderlecht players tonight as Celtic thrashed the Belgians 3-1 at Celtic Park to move 2nd in Group A. Celtic Park exploded as Larsson scored Celtics first and, once again, proved HE IS BRITAIN'S BEST EVER scorer in European competition. Celtic issued a match programme for £3. Here is a copy of a match ticket and a Windfall ticket.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 116 (05/11/03)

The latest offering from the NTV fanzine was on sale a tonight's match against Anderlecht. Big Chris Sutton is on the front cover and inside there is a champions league preview. This fanzine is not as good as it used to be but then again, they don't have the Kellys, Whites and Grants to give them the same ammo anymore.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR USA TOUR 1957 (03/11/03)

One of the Tottenham Hotspur programmes from the 1956 tour of the USA and Canada has sold on ebay for £117.75. Celtic played Spurs four times on this tour with each game producing a different programme. This was the third game in the series of four and was played at the Varsity Stadium in Toronto. Click at this link to see every programme produced for Celtic matches in the North American continent.

KILMARNOCK SPL 11 (01/11/03)

It was Chris Sutton's turn to score a Henrik today as the Celts beat the Kilmarnock branch of the Rangers Supporters club 5-0 at the Theatre of Pies. Hugh Dallas was up to his usual tricks as he let dozens of Kilmarnock fouls go without a word before yellow carding Liam Miller for his first foul. Kilmarnock issued a 40 page match programme in full colour for £2. See a picture of a match ticket and a copy of the official teamsheet.

PROGRAMME MONTHLY - ISSUE 272 NOVEMBER 2003

The November issue of PM is on sale at your usual vendor for £2. As usual, the magazine is both informative and intersting but still no retraction of the inaccurate article - A Blight On Our Hobby - they ran in the September issue about Suduva reprints being brought back from the Kaunas match.

OCTOBER 2003

ABERDEEN SPL10 (25/10/03)

Hat-trick Larsson scored a Henrik in a 4-0 win over the sheep worriers today to move Celtic five points in front at the top of the SPL. Celtic issued their match programme in normal numbers.

NEW CELTIC PLAYING CARDS (23/10/03)

A new pack of official playing cards has been issued by Belgian company "Carta Mundi" under license by the Celtic. The 54 playing cards are made up of 4 sets of 12 - each set representing a part of Celtic's history - and two Hoopy jokers. The set comes in a smart box with the front panel having three miniature cards and the Celtic club logo and the back panel listing the titles of each set.Click to see the full pack of the cards.

MORE THAN 90 MINS ISSUE 17 (21/10/03)

The latest issue of the Mt90M fanzine was on sale at Celtic park today for £2.00. Twenty four, A4 pages in full colour with Neil Lennon on the front cover. Inside, an interview with 70's hero Dixie Deans confirms that he was NEVER a Rangers fan. There is the usual John Fallon column and the club's recent AGM is discussed.

RSC ANDERLECHT GROUP A (21/10/03)

One official programme and two pirates were issued for the match in Brussels, See the purple pirate,. See a copy of a match ticket. Thanks Glenn.

See other memorabilia from the game at Celtic Collectors Club site.

CATCH US IF YOU CAN (18/10/03)

Celtic's hotshots annihilated the Jammy Farts 5-0 today at Celtic Park to go four points above Rangers who have a tricky fixture at Motherwell tomorrow. Although they kicked and hacked for 90 minutes - with the permission of Kenny Clark, third placed Hearts were swamped by a very professional performance from Celtic as they found out that we are no FK Zelijeznicar. Celtic issued the usual type of match programme and here is a picture of the match ticket.

TAL 36 ON SALE TODAY (18/10/03)

The latest issue of Tiocfaidh Ár Lá was on sale at Celtic Park today. The 24 page, A4 fanzine is full of interesting articles and had a free copy of the 16 page ANTI RACISM fanzine called "United Colours of Football 4" inside. The fanzine is produced by "Kick it Out" the organisation that works with supporters, clubs and community groups on issues related to anti-racism in football.

AUTOMATIC ACCES TO CL GROUP STAGE FOR SPL CHAMPS (18/10/03)

UEFA today published the access list for the club competitions in the 2004/05 season. The UEFA access list, which is based on performances over the last five seasons, determines the number of places that each national association will have in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup. The most significant change among the leading positions is that Scotland will be entitled to enter two clubs in the competition, as was this season, but with the winners of the SPL gaining automatic access to the Group Stage at the expense of Turkey. The actual coefficients and the method of calculation are available on UEFA.com

NEW MATCH DATES (14/10/03)

The much awaited return friendly arranged against Feyenoord has been lightly penciled in for the 31st July or 1st Aug 2004.....and the CIS Cup tie against Partick has been moved to 4th Dec for a live broadcast.

AUTUMN/WINTER CORINTHIAN CATALOGUE(13/10/03)

The Autumn/Winter Corinthian MicroStars and ProStars mail order catalogue is out. Several Celtic offerings are available including a Larsson keyring, a 12 player team set and a couple of Charlie Nicholas figures in the Legends of the 70's and 80's series. Click to see some pictures and other details.

LYON PROGRAMMES FOR SALE

Celtic have a limited number of match programmes from the Lyon game left for £4 (inc p&p) or £3 if you pick it up at the SuperStore. Order one by calling the Celtic programmes department on 0141 551 426.

OFFICIAL GROUP A SOUVENIRS

Celtic have produced a range of memorabilia for the Champions League Group A matches. Several 4-team souvenirs are available - a 4 team pennant with the club logos, a 4 team banner, 4 different tee-shirts and a 4 team printed scarf. All of the items have all four club logos and the words "CELTIC FC" and "GROUP A". The T's have the dates of matches on the back. This advert appeared in the national press on Sunday (05/10/03).

BROTHER WALFRID MEMORIAL TRUST FUND CHARITY RACE NIGHT (10/11/03)

This programme was published for the The Brother Walfrid Memorial Fund charity race night held in the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park on Friday 10th October 2003. The organisers hope to raise enough to erect a statue of Brother Walfrid outside Celtic Park to honour his memory and what he did for Celtic Football Club. Twelve pages with full colour print on glossy paper included a statement of intent regarding the fund, a tribute to BW and the details of the evenings races. The actual racing is organised by events company "Sporty Race Nights and Casino Evenings Ltd", who are a Glasgow company with a Web site at www.sportyracenights.com.

CELTIC MEMORABILIA CHARITY AUCTION (09/10/03)

A selection of memorabilia from Celtic's historic march to Seville and the final of the 2003 UEFA Cup final will be put up for auction this Thursday (9 Oct). Among the different memorabilia sold for the Prince of Wales Hospice in Glasgow will be a Celtic strip fully autographed by the players. It is not clear whether all of the strips are match worn or not but they will be signed by the squad that were cheated by Capucho and Co. For info on how to make a bid, call Judi Farrell or Morag Cunningham on +44 (0)141 429 559.

DEFUNCT FANZINE NOT DEFUNCT

The Celtic fanzine that we all thought was as dead as the Ranger's title challenge is back with issue 19. The A4 alternative View colour fanzine started with issue 1 on March 5th 2002 as a fortnightly publication but by December of the same year it had been creeping towards being produced on a monthly basis. However, If you have already managed to get one of the current issues, you will have noticed that it has changed again and is now a bi-monthly with this issue for October/November.

CELTIC 2003/04 MEDAL COLLECTION (04/10/03)

If you're the kind of anorak that collects all things Celtic, you will probably have traded in the coupon in last weekend's Sun or News of the World for the collectors medal album and free starter medal. The concept and design are the property of a company called ESP Promotions Ltd and the album and medals have been produced under license from Celtic. Pictured above right is the front cover of the eight page album. Click for more info and pictures

CELTIC BACK ON TOP OF THE SPL (04/10/03)

Celtic went back to their rightful place at the top of the SPL with a 1-0 win in deepest Govan. John Hartson, despite what the bad looser from the Press Association claims, scored in the first minute of the second half with a slightly deflected shot sent high into the net past a helpless Klos. Rangers issued their usual type of match programme with a picture of the ineffective Arveladze on the cover at £2. Here is a picture of the match ticket.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PIN BADGES

A number of metal pin badges are available for Celtic's Champions League matches this season - FBK Kaunas, MTK Hungária, Group A badge with all four logos, Bayern Munich, Olympique Lyon, RSC Anderlecht. Other badges made this season - Arsenal friendly, Manchester Utd 1 Manchester Utd 2 USA tour. Learn more about these badges and many others at the Celtic Collectors Club Web site.

SEPTEMBER 2003

ANOTHER NIGHT IN PARADISE (30/09/03)

Celtic defeated the champions of France 2-0 tonight, Henrik Larsson was his usual brilliant self and supergub Elber was crap - no wonder Bayern got rid of him. Celtic returned to the awful A4 format for tonight's match programme and hiked up the price from £2 to £3. It looked like there was enough programmes printed for the match so it should be fairly easy to get one. We will keep you informed about this when the dust settles. See a copy of the match ticket and Windfall ticket.

HIBERNIAN SPL7 (27/09/03)

Hibs issued a very nice 56 page match programme in a smaller size (148mm x 211mm) than last season for today's match at Easter Road. See a picture of the match ticket for the Celtic end.

SCOTTISH FOOTBALL REVIEW (20/09/03)

The 24th edition of the Scottish Football Review 2003/2004 (formally known as The Scottish Football League Review) is due out. The publication produced by the SFL and assisted by the SPL is an exploration of a year in Scottish football. As a result of this partnership the review is full of statistical material about Scotland’s premiership, league divisions, cups games and international fixtures for last season as well as information on the leagues. It also features an editorial article about Celtic’s 02/03 UEFA Cup run to interest the Celtic collector.

MOTHERWELL SPL6 (20/09/03)

Celtic issued their usual match programme for today's 3-0 victory over Motherwell at Celtic Park. Celtic won the match 3-0 through goals from Larsson, Sutton and Maloney.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 114 OUT (20/09/03)

The latest issue of Celtic fanzine Not The View was on sale at Celtic Park for today's match against Motherwell. 48 pages in the usual style with Lennon on the cover - surely a dig at those pathetic Dundee bigots that complained about being shown the finger at last Saturday's match. They weren't so traumatised though when they were hurling their sectarian bile at the wee man. Picture of NTV here.

MUNICH PIRATES ON EBAY (17/09/03)

No official programme for the Bayern match but two pirates are already being sold on ebay. Click for pirate 1, click for pirate 2. Both were put up for auction before the match started in Munich. No pennants or friendship bages and scarves either but here is a picture of the match ticket for the Celtic end and a Bayern section ticket. Click to see a copy of a daily newspaper (not official).

None of the pirates for this match were sold at the match in Germany. The white pirate was made in Scotland, the one with the CL trophy on the front cover was made in England and the yellow one with the two club logos was made in Germany but not in Munich. The yellow issue is dreadful, the white one is okay, and the English one is very good and looks professionaly made.

DUNDEE SPL5 DENS PARK 13/09/03

Celtic defeated a good Dundee team today despite having to play most of the match with ten men after blunder ref Dougie McDonald sent off Didier Agathe. Dianbobo Balde scored in the eigth minute with a header and that's how it ended. Dundee issued a match programme. Click to see a picture of the official teamsheet and a match ticket for the Celtic end.

1st EVER ISSUE - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MAGAZINE (10/09/03)

The first ever issue of CHAMPIONS the official magazine for the UEFA Champions League is the best £3.95 you'll spend on a bit of paper this season. This excellent production from Haymarket Customer Publishing on behalf of UEFA, is packed full of great reading. The magazine will be published every two months (the 1st issue is for October/November) and owing to its unique access to players, coaches and events, a magazine that offers something different is very likely. The articles are first class and there are some great photographs in the 140 page super mag.

The magazine is pan-European and will be printed in German and French as well as English (the 3 official UEFA languages). Haymarket Customer Publishing have a Web site to back up their magazine @ www.haycustpub.com. If your newsagent doesn't sell it, you can subscribe to the magazine and get 25% off the price at the EUFA.com Web site

BAYERN MUNICH PIRATE LOOMING

We have been informed by Martin Betker of the German Programme Collectors Club (Deutsche Programmsammler-Vereinigung) that a pirate programme will likely be on sale at the Champions League match against Bayern Munich in Germany. Martin, a supporter of the famous Borussia Dortmund, tells us that although an official issue is extremely unlikely, a pirate issue is almost certain to be sold at the stadium. It is also very likely that the Spanish pirate sellers will be there. More about this later.

WHERE ARE ALL THE PROGRAMME MONTHLY REPRINTS?

So where are the hundreds of Suduva reprints we were promised by Programme Monthly in their work of fantasy about programmes bought in Kaunas? The answer is nowhere. Not one has been offered since the inaccurate article appeared in the September issue of the mag and never will. PM should now recheck their source and retract what they have claimed. This article has cost some collectors a fortune and PM should set the record straight and stop publishing rubbish (not for the first time).

Instead of writing about how bad Internet auctions are, the editor of PM should concentrate on getting his copy accurate and in writing about the very obvious flaws in his preferred method - the totally opaque offers list. At least Internet auction sales are transparent. Everybody involved knows everything, unlike the corrupt conventional offers list. I suspect that there is a touch of sour grapes in this continious carping about the Internet. He and people like him are simply technophobes or could it be that they are pissed off at not having it all their own way anymore. Read the original story here.

CELTIC CONFIRM UEFA REPRINT (06/09/03)

The UEFA Cup Final programme being sold by the Celtic shops has been confirmed as a reprint. Confirmation comes from the Celtic Superstore Web site where the programme is being sold for only £5 and is described as "UEFA Cup Final Seville Programme Reprint We have re-printed the Seville programme. Available Now. Due to fantastic demand please allow up to 28 days for delivery." It is a pity that Celtic didn't manage to do this prior to the final. Fans have been paying far in excess of £5 for a copy and there is no way of telling the reprint copy from the £80 copy. We have heard that Celtic did try to get the programme before the final but retreated in horror when the money for them was demanded up front. However, at least the matter has been resolved so, If you want to buy a reprint copy online (and there is very little difference, if any), click here.

ONLY MILAN ARE RANKED HIGHER THAN THE CELTS (06/09/03)

The Web site of the International Federation of Football History and Statistics has produced a list of the World's top 300 clubs. The list is produced monthly and Celtic had an IFF ranking of 9th on last month's list. This will make you feel proud to be a Tim but what if we told you that Celtic are now ranked second with only the current champions of Europe - A.C. Milan - above them. See the list for yourself for yourself.

Not only this, but Celtic are also the World's Club Team of the Month of August ahead of RSC Anderlecht, Chelsea of London and Galatasaray of Istanbul. The Hoops achieved the highest number of points globally and were unbeaten either nationally or internationally The Seville Heroes managed a sensational jump from 9th to 2nd place. Until now, no other club has managed such a performance. It is also the highest place ever achieved by Celtic Football Club in in the Club World Ranking. Click to see how the rankings work.

CELTIC VIEW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SPECIAL 03/09/03

Celtic gave out an excellent 16 page Champions League special A4 supplement free with Issue 9 of the View. Produced to their usual very high standards, the cover is a work of digital art. It is made up of a grey textured background of turf and sky meeting on the horizon. The UEFA Champions League logo is centred at the top and below this, your eye is drawn to a large image of the coveted trophy with a mirror special effect as a centrepiece. At the bottom of the trophy, four club logos of the Group A members sit two either side. Below the trophy and club logos is the title of the programme - "Celtic View UEFA Champions League 2003/04 Guide". Finally, although this issue was a free supplement, it must be destined to be sold as a separate issue as there is a price of £1 on the bottom right corner.

Inside, each opponent is described in text and photographs and there is an excellent article on the venue for this season's final - Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Hats off to the View team for another excellent production. See a copy of the Celtic View cover.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 03/04 MATCH TICKETS

Click to see a picture of a match ticket for the Bayern Munich Champions League match in Germany. Celtic have also issued tickets for the three Group A matches to be played at Celtic park. They have a special design for the CL and ticket collectors will be very pleased to add these to their collection - Olympique Lyon | RSC Anderlecht | Bayern Munich.

PROGRAMME MONTHLY SEPTEMBER ISSUE 270

The September issue of PM is out. The most striking thing about this issue is the completely inaccurate article on page 3 - "A Blight On Our Hobby". The article claims that Celtic supporters who made the journey to Lithuania to watch Kaunas v Celtic were able to buy copies of the rare Suduva v Celtic programme from last season's UEFA Cup run and, that these programmes were reprints.

The evidence offered to support this wild claim is sadly inaccurate and none of the sources that gave the story were named. There is no doubt that the programme was available in small numbers but the claim that hundreds were sold and were reprints is simply not true. [read more]

AUGUST 2003

More than 90 Mins Issue 16 August 30 2003

The latest issue of Mt90M was on sale at the Livingston match (30/08/03) in the new A4 format. At £2 for only 24 pages, we think that it's a little on the expensive side and would be better priced at £1.50. After taking a small vote on the new size, we all preferred the small booklet size like Not The View use. The content is of high standard and includes many interesting articles and insight from the many contributors. This issue continues the excellent series on Celtic memorabilia - "collectorscorner" by William and "thatswasthen" by jaygee.

UEFA CUP FINAL PROGRAMME IS A REPRINT (30/08/03)

You may have heard already but Celtic have managed to get hundreds of copies of the official UEFA Cup Final programme and had them on sale at Saturdays match with Livingston at £5 each. We purchased a single copy and compared it to an original. The programmes are EXACTLY the same except for two slight differences. The postcard at the bottom of page 3 in the original has moved to the top of the same page and is obscuring the programme contents list. This, however, will not be a way of telling reprint from original as the postcard can be easily moved. [read more]

LIVINGSTON SPL4 Sat 30/08/03

Celtic issued a match programme for today's match against Livingston.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW 28/08/03

The draw for the Champions League group stage was made today. Celtic drew Bayern Munich of Germany, Anderlecht of Belgium and Olympique Lyon of France. Bayern don't publish a programme for CL matches, Anderlecht print a newspaper issue and Lyon will print an official programme. These matches will take place on 17 Sept, 21 Oct and 10 Dec respectively.

MTK HUNGÁRIA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 27/08/03

Celtic played their 100th home European tie tonight and celebrated with a 1-0 victory over MTK and entry to the Champions League group stages. The match programme marked this milestone with a special front cover design. The match was designated a season book game so any match tickets will be few and far between. Click to see a picture of a losing Paradise Windfall ticket.

NOT THE VIEW ISSUE 113

The latest issue of NOT THE VIEW fanzine was on sale at the MTK match (27/08/03).

PARTICK THISTLE SPL3 23/08/03

Partick Thistle followed Dunfermline by adding 50p to the cost of their match programme from last season - and they put up the ticket price by a massive 28% on last season's price, for the corresponding fixture, from £15 to £19. Celtic won the game 2-1 with goals from Paul Lambert and Alan Thompson. Click this link to see a picture of the match ticket.

EUROFOOT INTERNATIONAL YOUTH TOURNAMENT

The v.z.w. Eurofoot International Youth Tournament took place in Belgium, at the Sportpark Hazebeek, Oostduinkerke from the 1st to the 3rd of August. The organisers issued an A4 tournament programme similar to last season's issue and there were a couple of posters available - Poster 1, Poster 2. On the first day of the tourny, Celtic youths drew 1-1 Germinal Beerschot and KAA Gent. The second day saw the youths suffer a 0-3 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, a 0-0 draw with PSV Eindhoven and a 1-0 defeat by Racing Genk. St Truiden won 6-7 on penalties, after a 0-0 draw, in the only game for Celtic on the last day of the tournament. Better luck next year Bhoys! Click to visit the Eurofoot Web site.

RKTVC BETUWE TOURNAMENT IN HOLLAND 16-17/08/03

Last weekend, Celtic U19s took part in the 8th Betuwe international soccer tournament held in the Sportpark De Riddeweide, Tiel, Holland for the first time. The two day (16/17 Aug) tournament has been running for eight years and is organised by Dutch side RK Tielse Voetbal Club (RKTVC). As well as RKTVC and Celtic, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord Ghana, Feyenoord, Helsingborgs I.F. (Sweden), RC Genk (Belgium), FC Utrecht, Vitesse, Willem II and FC Twente took part. A sell-out tournament programme was issued. There was also a nice 8 page newspaper and a tournament ticket. Pictures courtesy of the Celtic Collectors Club. The tourny Web site.

DUNDEE UNITED SPL2 16/08/03

Celtic issued a 40 page match programme with the new style cover for the 5-0 win over United today. See a picture of the match ticket and official teamsheet.

MTK HUNGÁRIA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 13/08/03

Unfortunately, no programme was published for the match in Budapest but the match ticket is an excellent souvenir of the match. Teams and a couple of photos were printed as part of a two page spread on the match in a local sports newspaper and this has become the nearest thing to a programme that you can get. A group of Celtic fans, disappointed that no programme was issued, have produced a single sheet memento of the match for themselves but these are not available for general sale. MTK distributed an official teamsheet to a few lucky fans but it is very plain. Finally, a very nice metallic badge was produced with club crests and match dates.

JERSEY U21'S TOURNAMENT MEMORABILIA

Celtic U21's played in the annual Jersey Internationl Football Tournament in August. Click here to see some information and memorabilia.

JERSEY TOURNAMENT LIVE ON THE WEB

If you have a fast Internet connection you can watch the Celtic U19's team play Benfica and Boca Juniors in the 2003 Jersey Football Tournament. Each match is being broadcast by the Jersey Insight Web site. The Celtic youths played Manchester United today (08/08/03) but unfortunately lost 10-11 on penalties in a closely contested match. You can 'tune in' tomorrow after the big team has gubbed the big cry babies from East End Park - 2.30pm kick-off against Benfica. Click for the jerseyinsights Web site.

On the subject of the Chris Sutton situation, from the chairman to the club captain, Dunfermline have kept the pot boiling on this one. If there is any trouble at tomorrow's match, both of these individuals should be arrested and charged with being part of the the cause. Get over it and grow up!!!!! Another group of people that should be questioned by police over the current situation regarding this game are the members of the SPL FIXtures committee (or whatever they call themselves while they manipulate the Celtic fixtures) for they were the ones that deliberately made this fixture the first of the season. Please use your vote to the left.

DUNFERMLINE ATH SPL1 09/08/03

Celtic failed to score today in a 0-0 draw at East End Park. Dunfermline were definitely trying this time as they fouled, elbowed, shoved and kicked their way through the match. The match referee, Hugh Dallas, did not help as he allowed Brewster and Tod to boot and elbow everything that moved and he had a linesman that was incapable of telling when the ball had actually crossed the line. So, what else is new? The Pars issued a match programme increased by 50p from last season to £2.50. See a copy of the official match teamlines and match ticket.

Stuttgart pirate sells for £51 on ebay.

FBK KAUNAS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 06/08/03

Celtic stuttered past FBK Kaunas tonight and into the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League where they will face MTK Budapest of Hungary. Celtic issued a programme similar to the Arsenal issue for the match with thirty eight pages inside the new design cover showing an action photo from the previous leg. Click here to see a picture of the match programme and the match ticket.

More than 90 Mins

The Mt90M fanzine has changed size to A4 for Issue 15. On sale at Celtic's friendly with Arsenal, the fhans mag claims to be "BIGGER, BRIGHTER, BETTER". What do you think? They want to know and you can do that here. Why they would make this change in size has us stumped but it could be something to do with the demise of the other A4 fhanzine - the now defunct alternative VIEW.

ARSENAL PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY 02/08/03

Celtic drew 1-1 with Arsenal today at Celtic Park. Celtic issued a new design programme for the match which was a total sell-out. More info later.

LOCH LOMOND YOUTH SOCCER FESTIVAL 1-3/08/03

The Loch Lomond Youth Soccer Festival is taking place at Garscube Sports Complex in Glasgow from the 1st to the 3rd of August. The organisers have produced a twenty page tournament programme with blue and white glossy card covers and mono pages on photocopy paper inside. This is the third festival and a grand total of 50 teams took part. Celtic had U14's and U16's teams taking part.

PROGRAMME MONTHLY AUGUST 2003 - Issue 269

The August issue of PM is on sale. There's the usual collection of interesting article and letters but not too much Celtic interest. Click here to see a copy of the front cover.

July 2003

FBK KAUNAS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 30/07/03

Celtic made a good start to their Champions League campaign with a 4-0 win in Lithuania. FBK printed a very nice 16 page programme in full-colour. Click to see a picture of the match programme, the match ticket and the official poster on sale at the Darius and Gireno Sports Centre.

MANCHESTER UNITED IN SEATTLE

Click to see a picture of the match programme for the ChampionsWorld Series match against Manchester United.

CELTIC YOUTHS IN GERMANY

Celtic U18's played in VfL Theesen's Annual Sports Week Soccer Tournament in Germany at the beginning of June. The tournament was part of a programme events organised by Theesen each year. The tournament included 11 other professional youth teams including Bayer Leverkusen, Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin, Eintracht Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Click to see a picture of the tournament programme.

POLLOCK TESTIMONIAL

Pollok FC have isued a match programme for Celtic fan Kevin O'Neil's testimonial. The 20 page testimonial programme was printed in monochrome with glossy card covers. Print run of 250. Visit the Pollok F.C. Web site.

SAGE YOUTH SOCCER FESTIVAL

BACK TO KAUNAS (17/07/03)

Looks like it could be another trip to lithuania if Kaunus can capitalise on the victory they managed in the Tórsvøllur Stadium last night. After a finely-balanced encounter, FBK Kaunas beat HB Tórshavn 1-0 in the 1st leg of their Champions League 1st qualifier match. The 2nd leg is on 23rd July).

FULHAM 1 CELTIC 2 (17/07/03)

Celtic took another Premiership scalp tonight by beating Fulham 2-1 at Loftus Road in their last game before heading off for a USA mini-tour.Fulham issued a match programme.Celtic will play Manchester Utd on the 22nd of July (Wednesday the 23rd of July in Scotland at 04.15am) and follow that by playing Boca Juniors of Argentina in Ohio on the 26th. Of course this will not be the first time that Celtic have played in front of the USA Celts and we have produced a list of all the previous matches played by Celtic in the North America and Canada since WW2. Just click here.

AICSC 5TH ANNUAL CHARITY DINNER PROGRAMME

The Association of Irish Celtic Supporters Clubs held their 5th annual charity dinner on the 11th of July. The venue was the City West Hotel in Dublin and a fantastic, forty four page (A4) version of their "from the view 32" magazine was sold for four Euros as a souvenir programme. Designed and printed by Ecclesville Digital & Commercial Printing Services in the style of last season's UEFA Cup final programme.

BOTH USA FRIENDLIES ON SETANTA

Setanta Sport are broadcasting both of Celtic's pre-season friendly matches in the US. On Wednesday 23rd of July you can watch the big one against Man Utd. Although the match kicks off in Seattle on the Tuesday, we will have to wait until the following morning at 4.15 to see the game. The match in the Clevland Browns stadium goes ahead against Boca Juniors of Argentina, despite AC Milan withdrawing from the original fixture. This match kicks-off on Saturday 26th at 1.15am GMT. Click here for details.

SOUTH AMERICAN CHAMPS BOCA JUNIORS TO REPLACE AC MILAN IN MATCH AGAINST CELTIC (Tuesday, July 8, 2003)

Boca Juniors of Argentina have been confirmed as the opponent to meet Celtic in the international soccer match at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 25. Boca Juniors replace AC Milan of Italy, who withdrew from the match because late season success in the Champions League and Copa Italia forced them to alter their pre-season training schedule.

Boca Juniors beat Brazil's Santos 3-1 last Wednesday to win the prestigious Copa Libertadores - South America's most important club competition - for the third time in four years. With the win, Boca Juniors earned the right to meet AC Milan in the Toyota Cup in Japan later this year. Tickets for the July 25 match at Cleveland Browns Stadium, ranging in price from $30 to $125 for VIP Seating, are currently on sale through TicketMaster outlets, TicketMaster Charge by Phone in Cleveland at 216-241-5555, and online at ticketmaster.com.

The 2003 ChampionsWorld Series, featuring seven of the top club teams in the world - Manchester United (England), Glasgow Celtic (Scotland), Juventus (Italy), Club America (Mexico), AC Milan (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Boca Juniors (Argentina) - has been arranged by the New Jersey-based ChampionsWorld, which will also manage and stage all elements of the games.

2003 CHAMPIONSWORLD SERIES SCHEDULE OF GAMES

July 22, 2003 8:00pm PT – Man. United vs. Celtic (Seahawks Stadium) Seattle, WA
July 25, 2003 8:00pm ET – Boca Juniors vs. Celtic (Cleveland Browns Stadium) Cleveland, OH
July 27, 2003 4:00pm PT – Man.United vs. Club América (LA Coliseum) Los Angeles, CA
July 27, 2003 4:00pm ET – Juventus v. Barcelona (Gillette Stadium) Foxboro, MA
July 30, 2003 8:00pm ET – AC Milan vs. Barcelona (RFK Stadium) Washington, DC
July 31, 2003 8:00pm ET – Man. United vs. Juventus (Giants Stadium) East Rutherford, NJ
Aug. 3, 2003 8:00pm ET – Man. United vs. Barcelona (Lincoln Financial Field) Philadelphia, PA

POLLOCK TESTIMONIAL

Pollok FC have confirmed that a Celtic XI will play in a testimonial for Pollok club captain and big Celtic fan Kevin O'Neil. Pollok are the Caledonian Paper Mill West of Scotland Premier League Champions 2002-03 and Kevin is their longest serving player. As it is the day after the SPL starts and three days before Celtic's 1st Euro tie, we expect a weakened side out - maybe the U18's. The date for the match is confirmed as Sunday July 27th. A testimonial programme will definitely be issued. Visit the Pollok F.C. Web site.

SWEDISH TOUR PROGRAMMES

A programme was issued for all three of Celtic's games in their pre-season tour of Sweden. Click at the following links to see a picture of the tour programmes - GAIS, Helsingborg and Kungshamn/Smögen Select. Click here for some great photographs from the KIF/SIF Select match.

JUNE 2003

The Scottish Masters.

sign the St Pauli petition.

THE SHAME OF SCOTLAND'S REFEREES

Scotlands referees are about to be awarded a 44% pay rise. Considering the fine job they did last season in ensuring the Ibrox treble, who can grudge them this small rise. After all, Celtic had scuppered their last two by winning the League Championship and the poor MIB's had to make do with only £360 for their wee Saturday job. Yes, in a time when the average fan makes only £200 per week, these guys are being given an EXTRA £160 just to make sure that Bazza doesn't get himself into trouble.

Free Tic Patch.

AC MILAN GAME IN DOUBT (30/06/03)

It has been reported by the Scottish media that AC Milan have pulled out of the glamour friendly match in the USA which is scheduled for the 25th of July in Clevland, Ohio. However, tickets remain on sale for the match and there has been no confirmation of this from the organisers ChampionsWorld or from the A.C. Milan Web site.

CELTIC IN EUROPEAN COMPETITION (22/06/03)

We have just received a copy of a great new Celtic book written by Celtic fan Jack Boyle. The Sixty four A4 pages tell the story of every European match played by Celtic since their very first foray into European competition in the 1962/63 season against Valencia in the old Inter Cities Fairs Cup (now the UEFA cup) up to and including the tragedy in the Olimpico in Seville. Each leg is described giving the competition, teams, scorers, attendance, venue and date and is finished off with a short summary of the game's events and an action picture from the match. On the back two pages, appearances and goals statistics are given for every players that has played for Celtic in Europe over the years and evry manager is listed along with their particular Euro record. The front cover has the famous photo of King Billy lifting the European Cup in Lisbon in the middle of the white background page and is surrounded by coloured club crests for most (could be all) of the clubs played against. If you want to buy a copy, you can contact Jack through his Web site.

THE SPLIT IS A LOAD OF SHIT

Ominously, we have heard that they have already been arranging our fixtures to suit their Paranoia. The reason we were given Dunfermline away is that Chris Sutton is suspended for the match and this would help stop all these crazy Dunfermline fans causing a riot at the mere sight of our Chris. Aye right. There would have been a bit of booing and some whistles and that would be it. The fixtures should not be set by these people if they cannot treat Celtic like other clubs and stop looking for excuses to interfere with our fixtures. It is time for change and for an impartial body to set the fixtures list and deal with any changes to it. Remember the Rangers game after the split. The split should be scrapped as it gives them another chance to 'sort' the remaining fixtures to suit there favourites.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW (20/06/03)

Celtic, the only former European champions in the European draws, will play the winners of the match between HB Tórshavn (Faroes) and FBK Kaunas (Lithuania). The tie will be played over two legs and after the first qualifying round played on 16 and 23 July, Celtic will know their opponents for the second qualifying round on 30 July and 6 August.

SPL FIXTURES OUT (19/06/03)

The SPL fixtures list for 2003/04 has been released today. On Saturday, 9 August Celtic are away at East End Park in a game the fish wrappers and the SPL are doing their best to promote as a 'volatile fixture'. This has at least two purposes - to upset Celtic and whip up Dunfermline players into a frenzy and to remind the referees that Chris Sutton should be singled out as a trouble maker. The thing is that Sutton couldn't possibly get a worse deal from the MIB's than he already gets.

MORE DAILY RECORD CRAP

Don't believe the crap about Celtic signing Yildiray Basturk from Bayer Leverkusen. We doubt very much that it will happen as both Manchester United and Arsenal are in for the player. The midfielder said "I want to play for Arsenal. Their offer is serious for me. Arsenal are close to me." We intend to keep a list of all of the inaccurate speculation that is printed by the fish wrapper hacks and publish it.

SUMMER TOUR OF THE USA - The 2003 ChampionsWorld Series

Celtic are to take part in a US tour by international teams this Summer. The tour by international teams has been organised by New Jersey-based sports events promoter Charlie Stillitano, head man of ChampionsWorld. Five other teams will take part including this season's Champions League winners AC Milan, runners-up Juventus, Manchester United, Barcelona and Club America (Mexico). Celtic first match is against the English League champions - Manchester United - on the 22nd July in the Seahawks Stadium, Seattle. The all-ticket match was a complete sell-out after only 4 hours. Don't panic, you can still get tickets for the match against Champions League winners AC Milan in Browns Stadium - the home of the Cleveland Browns - Ohio on the 25th of July. It will be the first time ever that a team other than the Browns has played at the 73,000-seater, world class stadium since it was built in 1999 at a cost $299 million.

CELTIC ARE VERY COEFFICIENT

Celtic have a UEFA coefficient of 57.187. This puts us above teams like Real Sociedad, Newcastle, Stuttgart, Monaco, Marseille, AEK Athens, Ajax, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev, Rosenborg, Anderlecht and Rangers. Recently we have defeated teams with a better coef in Celta de Vigo and Juventus but we are still a far way off Real Madrid with a coef of 150. Let's hope we can better this by having a good run in the CL this season. If your interested in how the coef is calculated, click here.

2003/04 FRIENDLY MATCHES

We hear that Celtic have arranged July friendly matches away to Fulham (Thursday 17th), Notts Forest and Premiership new boys, Wolverhampton Wanderers. All three matches to be played in England - the Fulham match is at Loftus Road. Arsenal have been invited to play a match at Celtic Park. At the moment it is unclear when this will take place. With a return from their US tour on the 26th July and a Champions League qualifier on the 30th, Martin O'Neill may want this game played in between to sharpen up his squad for the match against whoever Celtic draw. Or, the match may be left until early August if O'God thinks his team need a rest before the CL game.

On the youths front, Celtic youth team were supposed to have played a four team - Sligo, Galway and Killybegs - tournament in Ireland this week but our contacts there say they have heard nothing about it. More on this later. Still with the youths, following the cancellation of the Manchester tournament, SARS has meant that the Annual Hong Kong Youth tournament has had to be cancelled. The Horden youth tournament held in Germany each year has also been cancelled.

THE ROAD TO GELSENKIRCHEN

Celtic will begin their efforts to reach next season's Champions League final on 26 May 2004 at Gelsenkirchen, Germany when they play a Second qualifying round, 1st leg match on the 30th July 2003. The 2nd leg is played one week later on 6th August. The draw for the matches will be made on June 20 at Noga Hilton Hotel, Geneva. The Champions League format has been revamped for 2003/04, with a 32-team group stage followed by a 16-team knock-out phase. Two teams from each of the eight groups of four will go on to the knockout phase. Let's hope Celtic are in it.

FK SUDUVA AWAY IS THE ONE EVERYONE WANTS

A copy of the FK Suduva away programme attracted 23 bids on ebay and sold for £205. This makes it season 2002/03's most rare and sought after programme. Click here for the FK Suduva ebay auction page (available for 90 days from 14/06/03).

SAMBA YA BAMBA

Glasgow band "Samba Ya Bamba" have produced a Latino version of the Celtic song "C'mon the hoops" on CD. The CD costs £3.99 with £1 donated to The Orla (Rooney) Fund.

Find out more at the Celtic Collectors Club.

SARS CANCELS CELTIC TOURNAMENT

Celtic's youngsters have been dealt a blow with news that this summer's Manchester International Football Festival has been cancelled. The tournament was to feature Under-19 sides from China, Japan and Thailand, along with Italian side Parma, Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers, Manchester City and Oldham. However, the event has been called off due to continuing concerns over the SARS epidemic.

FEYENOORD CELTIC DATE DELAYED

The traditional season’s opener at the Kuip will definitely not be a head to head with this year’s UEFA Cup finalists Celtic. The new opponents have still to be announced. After last year’s resolution to play a home and away fixture against the Bhoys, Feyenoord carried off the honours in the match at Celtic Park. The return leg was provisionally scheduled for Holland in August, but that has now been put on the back burner.

SUMMER TOUR OF SWEDEN

Celtic will be playing three friendly matches in Sweden during the close season. The news is that they will hold a training camp in Gothenburg for a few days. They will play a friendly against Kaunsbaka on Monday the 7th and GAIS on 8th July at Gamla Ullevi. Next, it's on to Helsingborg - birth place of the King of Kings - where it is rumoured that Henrik will play for both teams in the Olympia Stadium on 10th July.

Remember and check back here after the tour for information on any programme issues during the tour. Visit the Helsingborg official Web site and buy tickets for the match online. You may need the help of this language translator to understand the HIF site.

PROGRAMME MONTHLY JUNE 2003 ISSUE 267

The June 2003 issue of Programme Monthly is out. Nothing much about Celtic inside but still a good read. One interesting article is about Scottish clubs appearing in European finals and the programmes issued.

ST PAULI BENEFIT MATCH PETITION

Hamburg side, F.C St. Pauli have unfortunately been relegated to division 3 in Germany and are suffering financial hardship. St. Pauli fans regularly travel long distances across Europe to follow Celtic as comrades against racism and fascism in football. This petition asks Celtic F.C to organise a benefit match against St.Pauli. Please sign the petition.

CELTIC YOUTH TOURNAMENT PROGRAMMES

Celtic's youngsters have been playing in a couple of tournaments in Europe. An eight page newspaper programme was produced for the Bassevelde International Tournament held in Belgium on the 23/24/25 of May. They also took part in the Ten Brinke Bouw International tournament held in Holland on the 16/17/18 of May. The 106 page Ten Brinke Bouw programme was an excellent production for this tournament that included Feyenoord, Blackburn Rovers, Dortmund, PSV, Ajax and PSG.