Apart from Mr Dermot Desmond, who has dipped into his pocket to pump another £10 million sterling (€16.27 million) into Celtic football club, other shareholders, season-ticket holders and supporters have hardly flocked to support the convertible share issue aimed at raising £25 million sterling.
Celtic did not even meet the £25 million funding target it set itself and it took the intervention of Mr Desmond, Celtic manager Mr Martin O'Neill and a collection of Mr Desmond's friends and some of his business associates to put up £17 million to make the share issue a qualified success.
Celtic has a notably loyal band of supporters, but having seen the value of their existing shares fall by two-thirds over the past two years, they were not in a rush to further invest.
Market sources say the level of small subscriptions to the share issue - the minimum application was £500 - was very low, and this left the door open for the high-profile Irish investor group to step in. Market sources are in no doubt that Mr Desmond's willingness to invest another £10 million in Celtic and the willingness of Mr O'Neill and the other investors to put in another £7 million is related directly to Mr Desmond's ambition to have Celtic leave the Scottish Premier League and join the English Premiership in three years' time. That is when the Premiership's current television contract with Sky and ITV expires.
In a recent interview, Mr Desmond said: "It's very simple, there's no mystery to it. Commercially, it would work because the audience would increase - in Ireland, Scotland, globally - then the advertising revenue would increase. Second, from a football standpoint, would the Premier League be better with Celtic and Rangers in it. I'd like to think so.
"I believe that you should go for a market that creates a greater football challenge and remunerates you at a level that means you can compete with the best. Because money determines whether you can retain players, not even buy them, retain them," he said.
An indication of how being a member of the Scottish Premier League restricts Celtic is that, although its ultra-modern stadium at Parkhead attracts more fans than any British club with the exception of Manchester United, its television revenues are less than £3 million sterling - roughly seven months' salary for Manchester United's recent £28 million signing, Argentinian Juan Sebastian Veron. Even the £22.5 million sterling raised in the share issue would just about buy one of Zinedine Zidane's legs!
Mr Desmond's ambition to get Celtic into the English Premiership has been given a major boost in the past week with support coming from Rangers' chairman Mr David Murray. Unlikely allies the Old Firm might be, but when it comes to football Mr Desmond and Mr Murray have the same ambitions.
There may be many obstacles to be overcome before Celtic and Rangers move but if they are successful in having regular matches against the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool and Chelsea instead of Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Hibs and Hearts, the £17 million invested in Celtic yesterday by Mr Desmond and the other Irish investors could end up being the investment of the year.
In the meantime, the investors in the convertible share issue will, from June 2004, receive a fixed 4 per cent cash dividend as well as a "participating dividend" which is directly linked to Celtic's performance in the European Champions League. This participating dividend - a novel element in the share issue - will be zero if Celtic fails to reach the final 16 of the Champions League.
If Celtic does reach the final 16, a 2 per cent participating dividend will be paid. If the club reaches the last eight, the participating dividend will be 4 per cent and it will rise to 6 per cent if Celtic reaches the Champions League semi-finals.
In September 2007, the convertible preference shares will convert into ordinary Celtic shares based on a formula linked to Celtic's share price at the time. If the price is 125p sterling or above, the convertibles will convert on a one-forone basis.
If the share price is less than 125p, the convertibles will be converted by dividing that 125p price by the price at the time. So if Celtic's share price in six years' time is 62-1/2p, each convertible will convert into two ordinary shares. The maximum conversion ratio is 3-1/8 shares for every convertible.
The one-for-one conversion would increase Mr Desmond's stake in the enlarged Celtic share capital to around 30 per cent. But if the conversion is higher than one-for-one then it is conceivable Mr Desmond's shareholding could rise above the 29.9 per cent level that would force him to make a bid for the remaining shares.
Celtic shares, which have fallen from the 125p at the time the share issue was announced at the end of June, closed 1p higher on 110p sterling yesterday. Two years ago, the same shares were trading around 320p, emphasising that success on the Scottish front is not matched by share price gains.
