The proposed buy-out of Celtic by the Kenny Dalglish-Jim Kerr consortium was turned down by the Parkhead club's directors yesterday, even before they had made a firm offer.

Dr Brian Quinn, the vice-chairman and spokesman for the Celtic plc board, made it clear that neither the price the syndicate was prepared to pay - understood to be well below the £100 million that had been speculated in the media - nor their business plan for the club's future met the criteria of the directors.

Quinn added that the directors favour the plan by Fergus McCann, the major shareholder with a controlling interest of just over 50 per cent of the equity, to sell his shares next summer to Celtic supporters and existing shareholders to give the club a broadly-based ownership.

McCann himself disdained the Kerr-Dalglish approach when he said: "I have not given five years of my life to Celtic, along with my fellow directors, to take it from bankruptcy to a point of strength and then recommend a proposal which fails to reflect Celtic's values and aspirations."

Celtic are at home to Dunfermline today. The coach Jozef Venglos was still trying yesterday afternoon to sign the goalkeeper Steve Banks from Blackpool as his regular number two, Stewart Kerr, is a long-term injury victim. Venglos revealed that Tony Warner of Liverpool has had his loan period extended by two months but it appears he would also like to buy Banks, who will probably cost around £350,000.