Celtic FC

The club was founded in 1887 to alleviate poverty among the Irish immigrant population in East Glasgow, which explains the green shirts, the name, the Irish flags, the pictures of the Pope, the cursing of the British monarchy, and much of the rivalry with protestant-leaning Rangers. Even their nickname, the Bhoys, is a reference to common Gaelic spelling.

They started winning the league in the early 20th Century, and they have done so 53 times in all. That goes with 42 Scottish Cups and 21 Scottish League Cups. The glory years were the 1960s and 1970s, when manager Jock Stein led them to nine straight league titles from 1965 to 1974.

But their 1966-1967 season was probably the greatest in British football history. They won the league, the Scottish Cup, and the League Cup, and then went to Lisbon, Portugal and beat Inter Milan in the final of the European Cup, now the Champions League. They thus became the first British team to win that as well as the first European club to win a league-cup-Europe treble. And all of that was with players born within 30 miles of Glasgow.

There are also some great stories of Celtic fans traveling by every means imaginable to get to that game, and in fact their away support is legendary. They made the 2003 UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in Seville, took 80,000 fans down there, and — even though they lost the game 3-2 to Porto — were recognized by FIFA and UEFA for their good behavior.

After Rangers imploded financially, Celtic lately have been dominating the league once again, winning the league all but one season since 2012, and they have taken four domestic trebles in the last six seasons.

It is perhaps an indication of the Scottish league’s strength, though, that Celtic have failed to get out of the group stage in a European competition for years, and in last season’s Champions League they managed just two draws in six games. Still, it must be said that when a big European club comes to Celtic Park, it’s a pretty special occasion.

Celtic and Glasgow Rangers are known as the Old Firm, such has been their domination of Scottish Football. Between them they have won 108 of 125 league titles, and every one since 1985.

It is considered one of the most famous and intense rivalries in all of football, especially with the religious and political overtones — Celtic fans often ending a song with “Fuck the Crown” while Rangers end another with “Fuck the Pope.”

For years each club was given several thousand tickets for games at the other’s stadium, making for remarkable atmospheres. But in recent years it was cut to the league-minimum 800 or so, and in the 2023-24 season it appears there won’t be any away fans.

Such is their dominance of not just the league but also both cups, as well as their relative parity, the numbers are astonishing: They have played 437 times since 1888, with Rangers leading at 169 wins to Celtic’s 162.

There have been too many memorable games in this one to count, so here’s our favorite Youtube channel, Copa 90, on the fixture:

The women’s team go simply by Celtic FC and play in Scotland’s top tier, the Scottish Women’s Preier League. They were only founded in 2007 and in 2020 became the first fully professional women’s team in Scotland. Home games are at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie, a little ways east of Glasgow. See the club’s website for more.

They famously sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before games, having picked it up after a trip to Liverpool in a 1966 European game.

They also sing a lovely Irish song called Grace, with this chorus:

Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye.

Here’s a great version of that one.

And here’s a good collection of others:

Celtic Park is in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, so sometimes you’ll hear it referred to as Parkhead. Celtic fans like to call it Paradise.

It seats 60,411, and while they have played on this spot since 1892, what stands today was built in the 1990s, after a period of financial difficulty and in response to the Taylor Report, which created safety requirements at British stadiums. When this structure opened in 1998, it was the biggest club stadium in Britain — since surpassed by Old Trafford at Manchester United.

The Main (South) Stand is the only single-tiered stand and was the only one not rebuilt in the 90s; it dates to 1929 and got its current roof in 1971. The approaches to this stand includes a series of statues, and the whole outside of the place is decorated with images and banners depicting former players and great moments.

Away fans are in the southeast corner, with two sets of flag-waving Celtic Ultras in two other corners.

TOURS: You can book a tour by emailing or calling the club. Learn more here.

GETTING THERE: It’s not the easiest place to get to. The closest train stations are Dalmarnock and Bridgeton, each accessible on direct lines from Glasgow Central and each about a half-mile away. Buses from the center will only get you as close as The Forge Shopping Center, also about a half-mile away, so a taxi on the way there might make sense. Traffic around there is brutal afterwards, so after the game a taxi will be tough, even if you book one ahead of time.

The club has other options for getting to Celtic Park here.

PUBS & GRUB: There is really nothing around the stadium, so take care of eating and drinking in the center before you head out. There are a lot of old pubs in town, and the area around the station has plenty of places to eat, including a few locations of longtime local chippy Blue Lagoon.

AROUND TOWN: Glasgow is a great city and well worth a visit. It’s also only an hour from Edinburgh, so extending a football trip up north is an easy thing to work out. We’re not travel experts on the city, so as a starter, here’s Rick Steves with some suggestions: