Terry CassidyChief Executive ( 1990 - ??)

December 1990 saw the arrival of Terry Cassidy as the club's first ever Chief Executive. It was a bold move and a tacit admission that the directors themselves were not in possession of the necessary business skills required to turn things around.
From almost every angle Cassidy apparently was the ideal man for the job; he had quite an impressive track record given that he had added £1.6 million to the turnover of the Irish Times in his first year there; he didn't carry the baggage of being a "Celtic man" but he was familiar with the Old Firm situation from his days with the Evening Times and Glasgow Herald. Perfect. But Cassidy was fated to be one of the most controversial figures attached to the club in the 90s. Quite an accolade if you stop to think about it.

One of his first press conferences saw him criticise Rangers for not hiring his services first and Within one week of his appointment he was advising the Bank of Scotland not to increase the club's overdraft. One of the things he had discovered on his appointment was that Celtic didn't have a business plan. This was 1990 and a club that was supposedly due to finance a multi-million pound stadium did not have the basic foundation that every business needs. Cassidy quickly deduced that if there was no plan for finance then there was certainly no plan to repay the overdraft and he advised the bank accordingly. The board found out about this and it immediately soured relationships.


Although his relationship with the media would have deteriorated sooner or later, early interviews with the press had the new Chief Executivecomplaining that this was the first time he hadn't been invited to join the board of any company he had worked for and he was not impressed. With Terry Cassidy about there were very few dull moments.

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For real escapism, and a jolly good laugh, you only had to follow the court case featuring Terry Cassidy vs. Celtic FC. Our former CEO was suing Celtic for damages having been sacked. You must remember Terry, our erstwhile Chief Executive with the manners of a Rottweiler and all the charm of a zookeper's welly? He was claiming £143,000 damages for breach of contract after he was dismissed with a year or so left on his contract. The Celtic board decided to defend itself, counter-claiming that Cassidy was guilty of grave industrial misconduct. And if you think that's rich coming from the Celtic board of the time then stick around. There's better to come.

So, who do you call upon to defend the honour of the club when the going gets tough and you know you're in for the verbal equivalent of ten rounds with Chris Eubank? None other than our very own diffident public school milksop Chris White.White. He spent the whole of the first day of the trial sanctimoniously reciting a litany of Cassidy's misdemeanours. The directors, it was revealed in court, were none too happy when Terry burst into a cosy soiree they were attending with their wives at Hampden as guests of the SFA. Our Chief Exec hadn't been told about this particular social event but decided to go anyway, proceeding to demand a seat for himself and partner. When they asked him to make himself scarce he called White a 'bastard' and called the others 'a bunch of women.' As if this wasn't bad enough, according to White Cassidy had been insolent to the directors, wasted club money and had given jobs within the club to members of his family, whereas Chris had only committed two of these sins. He was never insolent to anyone on the board.

If you're thinking that this all seems a bit ridiculous in view of the past performance of the directors themselves then you can imagine that Cassidy's brief, Ian Bonomy QC, must have been approaching the prospect of cross-examining Chris with all the relish of Derek Johnstone at a pie eating contest. Under interrogation White was forced to conceded that rather than a club run by a hard-nosed bunch of corporate high flyers, 'wives played a leading role in the club.' As his cross examination wore on White was warned by the judge about being evasive and eventually had to admit that he 'may have misled the court.' It was a truly remarkable case, and a true indication of how strapped for cash the club was. I mean for the sake of a few thousand quid to shut Cassidy up or risk all your dirty washing hung out in public. For a club like Celtic it shouldn't even be a choice.

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