The year is 2025 but atmosphere is like it's 1994

Rebels are restless ... and history proves it's path leading to insurrection

- HUGH KEEVINS

CELTIC left themselves hostages to fate in the second leg of their Champions League playoff with Kairat Almaty.

They have been taken captive and imprisoned by the club's own lack of ambition.

Manager Brendan Rodgers is victim of boardroom betrayal and supporters have been taken for fools by the Celtic Park hierarchy.

The cost of corporate neglect is stagnation on the park and the worsening of the disconnect between club and customers.

I wrote here last week it was as if the Celtic board had a death wish the way they were going about their business in the transfer window.

And after observing the crowd's poisonous reaction to the lifeless 0-0 draw with the Kazakhs on Wednesday night, I rest my case.

The year is 2025. The atmosphere is 1994.

The difference is that when Fergus McCann arrived to save an institution from closure in 1994, Celtic were in debt to the tune of millions of pounds and floundering under a board of directors who had no idea how to run a football club.

Today Celtic face expulsion from the Champions League, with the associated loss of substantial revenue, while having tens of millions of pounds in the bank.

It's as unbelievable as it is unforgivable in the eyes of those who partly created that level of wealth through slavish devotion to the club.

The mood of 1994 also came to mind when a fans' group, Bhoys Celtic, issued a statement condemning the board for incompetence and disregarding the fans.

The battle has started. The rebels are restless.