Football Without Fans – Sakhalin CSC | OneFootball

Sakhalin CSC

Sakhalin CSC recently gained some exposure after an article was published in The Celtic View, followed up with a podcast interview with Joe McKenna on The HomeBhoys Channel. They are noted as being one of the most remote CSC’s within Europe.

The main difference between their club and the vast majority of other CSCs is the fact that their members travel to and from Russia, even though they do not reside there full-time.

Sakhalin Island, Russia, is a small island just off the Far East coast of Russia and to the North of Japan. With a population of around one million people, it lay fairly dormant until the discovery of oil and gas in the late 1990s.

Up until then, this island was reliant solely on fishing for survival. In the early 2000s, the emergence of Exxon, Shell, and latterly Gazprom brought life to this small, sleepy island.

Around 2007, with work aplenty worldwide, finding ex-pat applicants to fill jobs became a problem due to the extensive travelling involved, where they had to fly from the UK to Moscow, then onto Sakhalin via a 9-hour flight, followed by a 14-hour overnight train journey, and after all of this, if the weather prevented the helicopter from taking you offshore, a 4-hour boat ride. All in all, it was an arduous journey.

Ralph Collins was asked by Jim Nelis if he was interested in a job in Russia. He met up with some of the lads in early 2008, where they all drank in a local bar beneath the Ruben Hotel. Initially, as a small group, they would meet and discuss the forthcoming fixtures, and with the time difference between Sakhalin and the UK either +10 or +11 GMT, this meant that 3 p.m. kick-offs fell for them at 1 a.m. in the morning.

As they didn’t work on a Sunday, this allowed them to stay awake to watch Celtic. They slowly built up a hard-core following of eight or so regulars: Dennis Doherty, Pat Quinn, Jim Nelis, Jim Bradley, Shug Fraser, Davie Miller, Gary Reilly, and Ralph Collins.

But first, they needed to name their CSC. A name to catch the eye. The name of the club was simple enough: Sakhalin No.1 CSC. They then discussed a logo. The small city where a few of them worked was called Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk; therefore, the phrase kind of rolled off the tongue.

Their president, Pat Quinn, coined the phrase, ‘If Yuzhno the history.’ As time went on, they secured a table in the Mishka Bar and began hanging up Celtic memorabilia, shirts, scarves, and pennants. They then commissioned the making of a club flag, which, incidentally, has followed Celtic into Europe and has also made appearances at the Las Vegas Celtic Conventions. They then started designing and ordering polo shirts for themselves. Slowly, they began to gather a bit of momentum, with other ex-pats enquiring as to what they were all about.

Pat Quinn set up a weekly football sweep, with a percentage of the takings each week being accumulated and spent on the likes of local orphanages and schools at Christmas time. The club soon picked up a reputation for being charitable. With the ever-changing personnel on the island, their membership evolved regularly, as did their numbers.

In 2018, they reached a milestone with their 10th anniversary, so they commissioned more polo shirts, lapel badges, and embroidered badges, as well as winter ‘tammies’ to help stave off the harsh winters.

They procured a new flag, which is currently housed in Yuzhno and is brought out and displayed in the main square after a trophy has been secured. The Square is aptly called Lenin Square, although the spelling can be amended to read Lennon Square.

For every member who eventually leaves the island for pastures new, they are readily replaced by others. Jim McCue, Billy Woods, Peter Leonard, Stuart Ramage, Stretford Cheshire, Davie Quigley (the father of Paul Quigley, one of the main activists in the Fans Against Criminalisation Campaign,) and last but not least, their fully fledged Russian member, young Alexander Geyer Sasha, a native from Krasnodar who wears his Celtic top with pride.

As they entered 2019, they elected to become more involved in charities connected to Celtic. The club embarked on the 67 Kitchen Appeal, where they were tasked with raising £1967. In 2019, in conjunction with Mary’s Meals, makeshift kitchens were built to help feed the youngsters in that area of Malawi.

Also, in 2019, an updated football sweep was developed and introduced; again, the money made from this was offered to a local charity called Reach For Life,’ which supported the homeless in Yuzhno and the surrounding areas. Homelessness is unfortunately an increasing worry, especially within a system that barely offers any assistance, and with temperatures dropping to around -35 on a regular basis, the need for shelter, food, and warm clothing is essential.

As a founding member, Ralph assisted in the design and procurement of various polo shirts over the years but does not own one. He has given all of his away. As soon as someone sets their eyes on one and asks about the club, most are immediately drawn into asking to purchase one, but the logistics of it all, coupled with security on arrival within the Russian Federation, make it difficult for them to procure, deliver, and repackage items.

They purchased their polo shirts from a guy called John Paul Withers, who resides in Thailand. They asked Shug Hoolighan, who is one of the kit men at Lennoxtown, if he could get a few signatures, and their initial intention was to raffle the signed shirt after it was framed.

Unfortunately, due to advertising restrictions, Scott Brown was not permitted to be photographed wearing non-Celtic merchandise; therefore, they lost out on what would have been an iconic photograph of our illustrious captain wearing the Sakhalin CSC shirt. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, the company pulled out of Russia, so all club members are no longer in Sakhalin. They still live on in spirit, though, with all individual members following the Bhoys from all over the globe.

An extract from Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs by David McIntyre (Celtic Bars). Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs is out now and available in print and kindle versions HERE.

More to follow from Football Without Fans on The Celtic Star, the Celtic supporters website. Will it be your CSC that’s featured?

You can order a copy in print or kindle from Amazon where ever you are in the world. Order your copy HERE

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