A SITE Brian Dempsey, then a Celtic FC director, once proposed as a new home for the club, has been sold to a developer and is being marketed for housing.

Property sources suggested the site at Robroyston, being marketed by Cala Homes West as the Wallacefield development, had been sold by Dempsey's company for GBP20 million.

The Cala marketing literature says: "It is a land rich in history" and talks of the area's "strong links to William Wallace." But there is no mention of the links to the very controversial proposal in the early 1990s to rebuild Celtic Park in phases on the Robroyston site.

The Celtic scheme would have involved the use of at least 60 acres at a massive site near the M8 motorway.

For an outlay of GBP1.2m the club would have acquired the site and built a 50,000 capacity all-seated stadium.

The idea was for the development to have been funded by a 25-per cent share of the surrounding pieces of land that Celtic would have gained as part of the deal.

Those bits of land would have been used for a hotel, recreational facilities and housing.

The plan, which was controversial because it would have involved moving to land owned by one of Dempsey's companies led to his removal as a director of the club.

The proposal was strongly opposed by then club secretary Chris White and director Michael Kelly, a former Lord Provost of Glasgow who led the vote for Demspey's removal as a director.

The Robroyston proposal was an alternative to the ultimately successful move to redevelop the ground on the Parkhead site, a move that was completed in Fergus McCann's era at the club. The rebuilt Celtic Park has a capacity of almost 61,000 and has been generally hailed as an impressive stadium.

The Cala material includes the phrase: "In recent years this semi-rural location has grown as a popular residential setting, being well situated for the needs of today's discerning family." The first part of the development has 74 houses, with two neighbouring sites being earmarked for future housing development.

When the Celtic stadium proposal was rejected by the club board, Dempsey moved to alternative proposals and lodged planning applications for other uses of the site including two phases of housing development, a supermarket and a DIY store.

All these years later a different option for housing has gone ahead under the auspices of part of private builder Cala.

Brian Dempsey was unavailable for comment despite attempts to reach him at the weekend.