Inside Celtic's infamous 'Battle of Montevideo'

It's 55 years today since the Battle of Montevideo, the third game in the 1967 trilogy of World Club Championship matches between Jock Stein's all-conquering Celtic and Racing Club of Argentina.

Celtic chairman Bob Kelly was against the team playing the decider after Racing Club's antics in Glasgow and Buenos Aires.

Legendary manager Stein got few calls wrong in his 13-year tenure at Parkhead. But in this one?

Ambition, pride... whatever the reason, former Hoops goalkeeper John Fallon played in that fateful match and said he knew that Stein was fuelled with a desire to see Celtic crowned World Club Champions. 

Stein was of the opinion that Celtic could and would win and be the best team in the world. It all ended in tears of regret and repercussions in a match that is rarely spoken about.

"There was something inside Jock Stein that made Celtic play the third match," Fallon told The Celtic Way. "Stein had the desire, ambition and drive and he wanted to see Celtic become World Club Champions.

"He knew fine well that Celtic could beat Racing Club at football that's if we ever got to play them in a proper game. Celtic would have beaten them under normal circumstances.

"Racing were a good football side but Celtic were better than them and they knew that and Stein knew that too which is why the third game went ahead as planned."

Celtic had won a bruising first-leg encounter 1-0 at Hampden Park courtesy of a Billy McNeill header.

The return leg in Argentina saw Ronnie Simpson struck with a piece of metal so hard that it split his head open right along the top before kick-off.

Fallon took over as Celtic’s goalkeeper as Celtic were embroiled in one of football's biggest stitch-ups of all time.

Tommy Gemmell scored from a penalty and Celtic led 2-0 on aggregate. Jimmy Johnstone then had a perfectly good goal disallowed but goals from Norberto Raffo and Cardenas saw Racing win 2-1.

With no away goals in operation back then the World Club Championship would be decided after a third match which was to be played in neutral Montevideo.

Fallon insists the game should never have gone ahead in the first place as there were riot police escorts for Celtic to and from the stadium in Argentina as it all got out of hand.

Four Celtic players - Bobby Lennox, Jimmy Johnstone, John Hughes and Bertie Auld (who actually refused to leave the field of play) - as well as two Racing Club players were ordered off in a match that has gone down in history and will be forever remembered as 'The Battle of Montevideo'.

"Some Celtic officials didn't want to play the deciding game after the first two matches," Fallon said. "The games at Hampden and in Argentina were brutal. We did think that 'neutral' Montevideo' was a strange choice for the third game.

"We were told we would be all right over there. There was a rivalry between Uruguay and Argentina, a bit like Scotland and England. Celtic ran out waving a wee skinny Uruguay flag and then Racing Club came out with a big massive Uruguay flag that covered the park and the crowd went wild for them. We knew we were up against it from that moment on.

"The bad blood just spilt over from the first match at Hampden as Racing lost the plot in that match too. We knew what we would be in for in the return in Argentina and how we got a penalty in that match is beyond me. The trouble all started in Glasgow. It was farcical.

"In hindsight, Celtic should have just said no this is not worth the hassle and we should have shared the title. We got slaughtered in the media for our players' behaviour. Yet a year later when Manchester United played Estudiantes in the same competition the English press said that the Manchester United team were kicked off the park. And Celtic weren't? It was two different takes on the exact same thing that happened to both Celtic and Manchester United.

"It was just one of those games where Celtic behaved badly and so did Racing Club but we were painted as the bad guys and villains of the piece and nothing was further from the truth.

"John Clark always swore that any TV clips they ever showed of him were always the famous boxing clip from the World Club Championship match against Racing Club when he squared up to their guy and then raised his two fists before the player ran away. Bobby Lennox said both teams lost the head.

"It just turned into a kicking match as it was never a game of football. I've never had a football experience like it. Celtic got the blame for everything that happened and the players always felt that wasn't right.

"There was a whole sense of injustice about it all. I've never been involved in a match in my career where six players were sent off. It is unique and the Battle of Montevideo stands out but for all the wrong reasons."

The more things change the more things stay the same and Fallon points one finger of blame solely at Paraguayan referee Rodolfo Pérez Osorio, who he accused of losing the plot thus sparking mayhem on the field of play.

He also believes that former England boss Sir Alf Ramsey did Celtic no favours by branding Argentina "animals" in the aftermath of the 1966 World Cup quarter-final which saw riot police drafted in to escort Argentine captain Antonio Rattin off the hallowed Wembley turf as the Three Lions triumphed 1-0 in another notorious bad-tempered affair.

Fallon said: "We were told the referee, who was from Paraguay, was good and reliable and that he had been specifically picked for this game but I think at one point he even told our players who would be getting ordered off. It was an absolute shambles.

"The referee just lost a grip and control of the game and that was it. The official in the last leg of that World Club Championship final was worse than Hugh Dallas - and that is saying something.

"All three games were refereed to a poor standard. It got to a point where I was just standing laughing half the time throughout the game at the referee and thinking to myself 'what he is up to now?'

"Celtic also suffered though because of what happened in the 1966 World Cup when Argentina lost to England. Alf Ramsay branding the Argentina team 'animals' lit the blue touch paper when we went across and Racing Club were out to get revenge for 1966 against Celtic by whatever means necessary. That is what killed us.

"Celtic had travelled to South America from Britain and they had decided that we were 'English' and that was that. We definitely suffered because of Alf Ramsay's comments 12 months previous."

Fallon revealed that Stein also blamed him for conceding the wonder goal by Juan Carlos Cardenas from 25 yards that proved to be the winner - and it led to the Celtic boss and world-class midfielder Bobby Murdoch exchanging heated words in the dressing room.

The 82-year-old said: "Despite not having much to do in the third game, Jock Stein always blamed me for the goal that we lost that decided it all.

"Cardenas hit an absolute screamer from 25 yards. There wasn't really much I could do about it. Bobby Murdoch went off his head at Jock Stein for that. He shouted to Jock: 'Don't blame him for the defeat, we got beat it was our own fault.'

"Cardenas was a great player. I correspond with an Argentine football journalist and a few years ago he was commemorating Racing Club's win and he asked me my thoughts on Cardenas and I told him that I got the blame for conceding that goal and he couldn't believe it. I think they even wanted to fly me and somebody else to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the game but it never ever happened."

Worse was to follow for the Hoops squad as their £250-a-man bonus for beating Dundee in the League Cup final was withheld by the club as a way of punishment for the events that had dragged the good name of Celtic through the gutter.

Fallon and co. only found out that snippet of information via the media though.

READ MORE: Lisbon Lion John Clark relives Celtic's greatest glory 55 years on

"It was the papers that revealed to the Celtic players we were all going to be fined £250 for our part in the Battle of Montevideo," he said. "In all fairness to Jim Craig, he pleaded both my case and his and said that we had nothing to do with any of the trouble. He said that we never did anything and he was right. I was lucky I got off with it.

"I don't think I was fined and what actually happened was that we beat Dundee in the League Cup final and the £250 was the bonus for winning that but we never got it. That is how Celtic did it.

"It was Jim that also told me that we got a silver runners-up medal for losing the World Club Championship final. I never ever got one as I had left the pitch and I wanted out of the place as quickly as possible.

"I think there is a photo of John Clark's medals at Celtic Park and it is displayed in his collection. I was unaware of any medals being given out and I never got one. It's a loser's medal anyway so it is not such a big deal."

Fallon admits that Stein was stuck for words and did not really know how to react to such a devastating loss. He allegedly had his head bowed on the whole plane journey home.

"Jock didn't know who to be angry with - the Celtic players, the referee, or the Racing Club team," Fallon recalled. "He really didn't know what to say or do after the Racing Club defeat. He had just set his heart on Celtic being world champions.

"He felt Celtic were good enough especially after we had beaten Real Madrid in Alfredo di Stefano's testimonial. Racing Club were a decent team but Jock Stein felt that Celtic would have had the beating of them over the piece.

"I would love to have been part of a Celtic team that was crowned World Club Champions. It would have been brilliant to still be able to say that to this day. It was still an experience to even get the opportunity to play in a World Club Championship final.

"The result was not what Celtic wanted. It is the one that got away. It remains the one and only time that Celtic had a real chance to be crowned world club champions. Sadly it was not to be."

It was indeed a bitter pill for Stein, Fallon and the rest of the Celtic team to swallow. It was all supposed to turn out so differently. The football world was meant to salute the Hoops as world club champions.

Some battle wounds are temporary but all battle scars are permanent.

It was a dark day for the beautiful game and a darker day in the illustrious history of Celtic.

Remember, remember the fourth of November, the Battle of Montevideo. Fifty-five years, on those of a green and white persuasion would probably rather not.