Celtic Football Club was formally formed at a meeting held within St. Mary's church hall in East Rose Street (now Forbes Street), Calton, Glasgow founded through Irish Marist Brother Walfrid on 6 November 1887. The club was founded in the hope of reducing the plight of people living that existed in Glasgow's East End of Glasgow by raising funds for the charitable organization Walfrid was establishing The Poor Children's Dinner Table. Walfrid's decision to form Celtic Football Club as a method of raising funds was heavily influenced by the model of Hibernian that was founded from the immigrant Irish population just a few years before in Edinburgh. Walfrid's suggestion for his name Celtic (pronounced Seltik) was designed to show its Irish and Scottish roots , and was accepted at the same time at the meeting. The club's official name, The Bhoys. According to Celtic media office, this new club was referred to by the name of "the brave boys". The postcard dating from the beginning of the 20th century, which featured the team and that read "The Bould Bhoys" is the first documented instance of the distinct spelling. The additional h is a reference to the spelling system used in Gaelic and it is usually associated with the letter"h.
On May 28, the year 1888 Celtic took part in their debut official game against Rangers and prevailed 5-2 during what they described as an "friendly match". Neil McCallum scored Celtic's first goal. The first Celtic kit was white shirt with a collar of green, black shorts with a black lining, and green socks. The initial club emblem was simple green crosses on an oval red background. In 1889, Celtic made it to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in their first season participating in the competition, however they fell 2-1 to Third Lanark. Celtic made it back to the final in 1892 and they won, beating Queen's Park 5-1, the club's first major victory. A few months later, the club relocated to a new stadium, Celtic Park, and later that season, Celtic was awarded the Scottish League Championship for the first time. It was in 1895 that Celtic achieved record for the League record for the most home score by beating Dundee 11-0.
It was in the year 1897 that the Celtic club became a limited liability company private as well. Willie Maley was appointed as the first secretary-manager. Between 1905 and 1910 Celtic were crowned the Scottish League Championship six times in succession. They also took home the Scottish Cup in 1907 and 1908, which were the first time that a Scottish club ever had won the double. In World War I, Celtic was able to win the league for the fourth time in a row and won 62 consecutive matches between November 1915 until April 1917. The late 1920s saw the rise of Jimmy McGrory as one of the most prolific goal scorers in British football history. Over 16 years of playing, McGrory scored 550 points in 547 matches (including sixteen goals in the game played for Clydebank in a season played on loan from 1923 to) and remains which is a British goal-scoring record that stands to today. In January of 1940 the retirement of Willie Maley was declared. He was 71 and had been with the club in various roles for more than 52 years. He started as a player, and later as secretary-manager. Jimmy McStay became manager of the club in February of 1940. He served for five years in the role however as a result of the Second World War no official competition in league football was played during the period. It was during this time that the Scottish Football League and Scottish Cup were canceled and, in their place, regional leagues were created. Celtic didn't do very well during the time of war however they did take home victory in the Victory in Europe Cup held in May 1945 , as one-off football game to commemorate Victory in Europe Day.
Former captain and player Jimmy McGrory took over as manager in the year 1945. under McGrory, Celtic defeated Arsenal, Manchester United and Hibernian to take home the Coronation Cup, a one-off event held in May 1953 in commemoration of Elizabeth II's coronation. Elizabeth II. McGrory also guided them to an League as well as a Cup Double in 1954. On the 19th of October, the 19th of October, 1957 Celtic beat Rangers during the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup at Hampden Park in Glasgow and retained the trophy they had taken home at the beginning of the year for the very first time in the previous year. The 7-1 score remains the record-setting win in the British cup final for the domestic league. The following years however saw Celtic struggle, and the team did not win any more awards under the leadership of McGrory.
The former Celtic captain Jock Stein succeeded McGrory in the year 1965. He was awarded the Scottish Cup in his first few months with the club and took them to the League title in the following season.
1967 was the year of Celtic's Annus Mirabilis in 1967. The club was a winner in every competition they took part in such as The Scottish League, the Scottish Cup as well as the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup, and the European Cup. Under the direction of Stein the club beat Inter Milan 2-1 at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, on the 25th of May, 1967. They be the very first British team and the first outside of Spain, Portugal and Italy to win the tournament. They are still as the sole Scottish team that has made it to the final. The players of that day, who all came from within 30 miles from Glasgow were later referred to by the name of "Lisbon Lions". The next season, Celtic fell to Racing Club of Argentina in the Intercontinental Cup.
Celtic made it to their first European Cup Final again in 1970, but they were defeated by 2-1 Feyenoord in the San Siro in Milan. Celtic was able to continue dominating Scottish soccer in the 1970s in particular, their Scottish Championship victory of 1974, their nineth straight league win which was equal to the world record , held in the same year held by MTK Budapest and CSKA Sofia.
Celtic had further success in the domestic league during the 1980s and during their Centenary season from 1987 to 1988, they achieved the Scottish Premier Division and Scottish Cup double.
The club was hit by a slump in the 1990s' early years which culminated at an announcement by Bank of Scotland informing directors on March 3rd 1994 of bringing receivers in the wake of the club crossing an PS5 million balance on its overdraft. However, an expatriate commercialist Fergus McCann wrested control of the club and sacked the family dynasties that were in charge of Celtic since its inception. According to reports in the press, McCann took over the club's minutes just prior to it being declared bankruptcy. McCann established the club's business by forming a limited liability public corporation called Celtic PLC - and oversaw the transformation of Celtic Park into a 60,832 all-seater stadium. In 1998, Celtic was again crowned champions in the hands of Dutchman Wim Jansen. The team also prevented Rangers from achieving their nine-in-a row record.
Martin O'Neill took charge of the club in June of. Under his direction, Celtic won three SPL championships in a row out of five (losing the other championships by tiny margins) and during the first season under his leadership, the club also achieved the domestic triple which made O'Neill the only Celtic manager to accomplish this following Jock Stein. In 2003, a large number of Celtic fans traveled to watch the club play during their UEFA Cup Final in Seville. Celtic lost 3-1 against Porto in extra-time with two goals scored by Henrik Larsson at normal time. The behaviour among the millions of Celtic supporters was praised from the citizens of Seville and fans were presented with Fair Play Awards from both FIFA and UEFA "for their extraordinary loyalty and sportsmanlike behavior".
Gordon Strachan was announced as O'Neill's replacement in June of 2005 and after securing the SPL title during the first year of his tenure He became three times Celtic manager to have won three titles consecutively. Strachan also guided Celtic towards their very first UEFA Champions League knockout stage in 2006-07 and then repeated the feat in 2007-08 prior to going out of the club in the month of May 2009, despite not securing the SPL title. Tony Mowbray took charge of the club in June 2009 and was replaced one year later by Neil Lennon. In November of 2010, Celtic set an SPL record for the most successful victory in SPL history. They beat Aberdeen 9-0, at Celtic Park.
Celtic celebrated their centennial in November of 2012, in the same week they played they played a Champions League match against Barcelona. They beat Barcelona 2-1 on the evening to conclude an amazing week. They ultimately qualified from the group stage for Round 16. Celtic completed their season with an SPL in addition to the Scottish Cup double. Celtic won its third straight league championship in the month of March 2014, with goalie Fraser Forster setting a new record of 1,256 minutes, without losing a single score in the league game. The season came to an end. season the club's coach Neil Lennon announced his departure of the club following four years as the manager.
Norwegian Ronny Deila, a Norwegian from Norway was named the manager at Celtic on the 6th of June, 2014. He led Celtic to win two league championships as well as the League Cup, but the team's performance in European competitions were disappointing. After being knocked out of Scotland's Cup by Rangers in April 2016, Deila announced that he would leave Scottish Cup by Rangers in April of this year, Deila announced he would quit the club at the conclusion of the season.
On May 20, 2016, Brendan Rodgers was announced as the successor to Deila. The first season of his tenure saw the team experience an unbeaten streak in national competitions. It was during this time , the club took home the 100th trophy of their majors beating Aberdeen by a score of 3-0 during the League Cup Final in November 2016. Celtic also won their sixth consecutive League title on April of 2017 with a record-breaking eight league games left and ended up with an all-time high of 106 points, being the only Scottish team to go through an unbeaten top-flight season ever since Rangers back in 1899. Celtic achieved their fourth treble when they beat Aberdeen with a 2-1 win during the 2017 Scottish Cup Final, the outcome of which was that the club went through the entire season without losing.
Celtic continued their streak of unbeaten domestic play through the remainder of the season, which eventually stretched to 69 matches, beating their record of 100 years old British record of 62 games until finally losing against Hearts in November of 2017. Celtic won their League Cup that same month after defeating Motherwell during the championship final and they went on to win their seventh consecutive title in April, 2018. They defeated Motherwell once more in the 2017 Scottish Cup Final to clinch the second consecutive domestic triple (the "double triple") and became the first team in Scotland to do this. Rodgers quit the club in mid-season of the following season , to move to Leicester City; Neil Lennon returned as the caretaker manager the remainder of the season. He also assisted in helping Celtic achieve an unprecedented record of a third consecutive domestic treble (the "treble triple") by beating Hearts with a 2-1 win at the time of the Scottish Cup Final. In the following the same month, Neil Lennon became appointed as the new manager of the club.
In December of 2019, Lennon led Celtic to an 1-0 victory against Rangers at the Scottish League Cup Final, Celtic's tenth in a row to win a domestic championship. In March 2020, Celtic were ahead by 13 points in the league after professional soccer was suspended in Scotland was suspended because of the COVID-19 virus that was sweeping the United Kingdom. They were declared champions in the month of May, after an SPFL board meeting in which it was concluded that playing the entire league season was not feasible. The conclusion of the 2019-20 Scottish Cup was delayed, with the semi-finals as well as the final game - against Celtic and Hearts like in the previous year's edition it was not scheduled until the end of the winter/fall of 2020. Celtic took the lead on penalties following a tie of 3-3 at the end of extra time, winning an unprecedented fourth consecutive three-peat. The team, however, Celtic struggled throughout the 2020-21 season, with low performance in Europe as they were eliminated from the League Cup by Ross County in February of 2021. They were trailing by 18 points Rangers on the table, effectively putting them out of the race for winning "ten in consecutive" championships in the league. Lennon quit on February 24, 2021. The team's his assistant director John Kennedy taking interim charge of the team. In the last few week of the season Celtic were knocked out the Scottish Cup by Rangers which forced them into their first year without a trophy since 2010 and ended the league campaign with 25 points further behind their Glasgow opponents.