ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which football clubs in Scotland in general, and Celtic in particular, influence social and political policy agendas that extend beyond football. To what degree does a multimillion-pound business such as Celtic plc address itself to wider social and community issues? Do concepts of community differ, for a club such as Celtic, from concepts applied elsewhere in Scotland or Britain? While the relationship between football and ethnic minorities has been viewed by some commentators as important within the English game, have concerns about sectarianism shaped a different agenda in Scotland? Before looking in detail at these issues it is worth making a number of initial observations about the specifically Scottish context.
