Supporters of Celtic sing proudly of knowing their history, yet the chairman is likely to have a better idea than most of the parallels their club shares with Hapoel Tel Aviv.

The former Cabinet minister has long-established connections with the middle-eastern state, having been an early member of the Labour Friends of Israel, a parliamentary lobby group promoting support within the party for a strong, bilateral relationship.

Indeed, having travelled a political pathway that began entrenched in the red, red roots of communism and ultimately led to a presiding role in a global capitalist operation, Reid has more in common with Celtic’s first Europa League opponents than even he perhaps realises.

Hapoel Tel Aviv are also a product of the left, one whose dogma has adapted over time after being held hostage to circumstance. The passing of time has diluted their ideological ties but, like each club in the state, their conception can be traced to one of the three major sporting organisations operated by the significant political parties.

The first of these groups was Hapoel, who were founded by the Histadrut, the trade union federation, in 1926 and named after the Hebrew word for worker. As they were closely aligned to the party of the workers (MAPAI), the dominant force in both the Knesset (the state parliament) and the coalition government, their belief was that clubs in a variety of sports would simply help maintain the health of the proletariat rather than foster a professional ethos -- a charge they levelled at their bourgeois Maccabi counterparts and, to a lesser extent, the clubs operated by the more right-wing Beitar group.

Between them, the three philosophically-diverse vehicles of the state controlled the football association of Israel, with the key roles filled by political figures each had nominated.

As Hapoel initially dwarfed the other two in terms of the number of clubs they ran, they became the prevailing party, allowing MAPAI to exert their influence over football in the state in a facsimile of what was happening in every major element of society in the first decades of Israeli independence. This even went as far as politicians “intervening” when one of the sides representing their ideology were engaged in a fight for the title or battling against relegation.

In Israel, a political football was not so much a concept as a fact of life.

The Tel Aviv branch of the Hapoel federation, understandably, enjoyed that state of affairs, winning 11 championships and seven domestic cups between 1934 and 1988, but the following year marked the end not only of Hapoel’s hegemony but also of the influence of the state in football. Just a year after winning the title, the team were relegated for the first time in their history, with supporters blaming the Histadrut for their parsimony as they struggled to retain their control over the economy in an increasingly capitalist society.

Hapoel were not the only ones to suffer. Clubs throughout the state were nearing bankruptcy as a result of the societal shift, with many being sold to investors over the following few years.

It was not until 1997 that Hapoel Tel Aviv moved infield from the left wing, being bought by a group of local businessmen, whose investment revived the debt-ridden club and has helped make them consistent continental competitors.

As the ties with the trade unionists have loosened, so too has the ideology. Eli Guttman, the current coach, appeases traditionalists by extolling the virtues of merely taking part in the Europa League, insisting that Celtic and Hamburg are most likely to qualify from Group C, but his renowned professionalism and in-depth preparation ensure that his pragmatic team will prove difficult opponents in their own Bloomfield Stadium tomorrow.

That said, many of the club’s most notable results in Europe have come outside Israel. While they were humbled 4-0 at Ibrox in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup two years ago, they beat Paris St-Germain in France earlier that campaign and have since beaten Getafe in Spain and both Gothenburg and Teplice on their travels earlier this season to qualify for the group stage.

All of that, though, is overshadowed by their finest European run, when they overcame Chelsea, Lokomotiv Moscow and Parma to reach the 2001/02 UEFA Cup quarter-finals, where they beat AC Milan 1-0 in the first leg in neutral Cyprus before losing at the San Siro.

That success has been partially attributed to the relaxation of hitherto parochial rules on the signing of foreign players. Hapoel, more so than Maccabi or Beitar, were long opposed to doing so as they believed it to be a gateway for professionalism. After years of debate -- involving, among others, the mooted transfer of Peter Lorimer, the former Scotland internationalist -- the Histadrut finally relented in 1988.

Each club is still only permitted to have five foreign players in its squad, but Guttman has used his quota wisely. Samuel Yeboah, whose uncle Tony enjoyed a spell with Leeds United in the 1990s, was linked with both Birmingham City and CSKA Moscow after scoring 15 times last season despite a spell out of the side for criticising the coach’s tactics. Nemanja Vucicevic, the Serbian midfielder who has spent much of his career in the Bundesliga, arrived in the summer.

They are not the only goal threats, though. Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian international goalkeeper and Israeli player of the year who has been linked with a move to several sizeable European clubs, has scored six times in his career, the last from the spot in the victory in the play-off round against Teplice.

The penalty was, reports suggest, as audacious as the one Artur Boruc took for Celtic in the Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final shoot-out against Dundee United last season.

It is merely another similarity for Reid and Celtic to ponder in Tel Aviv tomorrow.