John Fallon is widely known as the 12th Lisbon Lion, the unused substitute of the 1967 European Cup final. Now, he is gearing up for his moment in the sun.

Goalkeeper Fallon was the only reserve permitted on the bench when Jock Stein's Celtic conquered Europe by beating the mighty Inter Milan in Lisbon 56 years ago.

Fallon ultimately won six league titles, two Scottish Cups and five League Cups during his 14-year stint with the Hoops. However, it is only recently that he was presented with his treasured European Cup medal - after it was ripped from his grasp and handed to the Celtic chairman amid the dressing room celebrations on that fateful night in Lisbon.

Now filmmaker and five-time Emmy winner Jamie Doran is preparing to ensure Fallon is immortalised all over again - and in South Sudan of all places.

Doran has covered the atrocities of war all over the world and made documentary films covering frontline conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen as well as South Sudan.

He also made Al Jazeera's film The Fans Who Make Football: Celtic FC. It was a labour of love for Doran, who is a passionate and diehard Celtic supporter.

While covering the war in South Sudan Doran became friendly with Alison Tunga, the leader of a group known as the Arrow Boys. They had no money for proper weapons and, armed with just rudimentary weapons, they somehow repelled the forces of one of the most ruthless terrorist organisations in the world: the Lord's Resistance Army led by the infamous Joseph Kony. The LRA have not only murdered thousands but coerced almost 70,000 boys into becoming child soldiers.

During their chats, the filmmaker told Tunga about his love for Celtic and the story about the Lisbon Lions, Fallon and the European Cup medal. They have since joined forces to try to raise the almost £90,000 required to build a school that will provide a safe place for learning and education for the 500 children living in the Masumba Boma region of South Sudan, who walk as much as six miles per day to be taught under trees.

The project has been almost four years in planning and the land has finally been donated by the local region. Tunga was so captivated by the tales Doran told of Celtic and Fallon that, with the agreement of the organisers, the school they are building will be known as the 12th Lion School.

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Doran insists that the project will serve two functions: providing a wonderful educational facility for desperately poor children who have been traumatised beyond belief and a campaign to have Fallon recognised as a football great.

"The 12th Lion school is a great project," Doran told The Celtic Way. "It has a duality of purpose as we want to build a school as well as get John Fallon the proper recognition that he has deserved for years.

"What happened in that dressing room in Lisbon is unforgivable. It's a shocking episode. To have to give up your European Cup medal and hand it over to the chairman of the club is just wrong.

"This project is a wonderful celebration and we've raised nearly £6,000 in the first week which is phenomenal.

"I think it is in the Celtic fans' DNA to get involved in charity and projects to help those unfortunate around the world. One of the points I raised with Al Jazeera was that Celtic had to be involved in any football film about fans. You are talking about a boy who turned up at Celtic Park aged six on his own to watch the team. I will never forget it as I caught the 38A bus to Parkhead garage and the bus collided with an old lady - thankfully she was OK but all the passengers were evacuated from the bus and I had to walk to the ground on my own and get a lift over the turnstile.

"I eventually stopped asking for a lift over when I was at Hampden and I asked a guy to lift me over and he said 'For fuck sake, you are twice my size!' I looked at him and I was so that was the last time I asked for a lift over the turnstiles.

"But John absolutely adores this project and you know the kind of modest guy that he is - he is not in it for the recognition part, he just wants to be the force behind building this fantastically important school for the kids. I love it.

"I was actually in South Sudan when the Lord's Resistance Army attacked the village. It is just disgusting what they do to recruit child soldiers. They are led by Joseph Kony, whose forces have murdered thousands of people and some 66,000 boys have been forced to become child soldiers.

Celtic Way:

"Alison was the leader of a group called the Arrow Boys and I was shooting a documentary film about all of this and I was fascinated by their story. The beauty of it was that they knew the territory and armed with just spears and bows and arrows they succeeded in driving the Lord's Resistance Army from their land and they managed to chase them out back across the border and into the Congo.

"Now all the kids in the village - and there are about 500 of them - are taught under trees. When it rains there is a tarpaulin sheet to try to keep them dry. It is awful - they deserve more. I have never met a more traumatised bunch of kids in all my life. They all know the history as some of them were alive at the time of the murders.

"I have covered the frontlines of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen but I have never met more traumatised kids than these anywhere in the world.

"I told Alison about my love for Celtic and the Lisbon Lions and their achievements. Alison was fascinated with the story about John, the 12th Lion. The lion is indigenous to Africa so the 12th Lion school is just perfect as it also gives John the recognition that he totally deserves.

"I am incredibly biased but Celtic supporters are building stuff all around the world and they are working with charities everywhere. It is just their ethos. I support the team and the byproduct of that is seeing what the fans are all about. This is the kind of thing that makes Celtic supporters different to the fans of any team that I have encountered across the world.

"The beauty of this project is that while we have exposed what is going on in this part of the world we are actually doing something about it too. There is no better feeling than that."

Fallon himself admits he is both honoured and delighted to be involved in the project.

"I am absolutely delighted to be involved in the 12th Lion School project in South Sudan," he told TCW. "I am interested to see what reaction it gets from the Celtic supporters. I'm sure they will all chip in and help - it is in their nature.

"This all started four years ago when Jamie did the programme about Celtic supporters for Al Jazeera TV. He did an interview with me at my back door. We started talking about the project back then. It is only in the last two years that it has really come to fruition.

"In the last couple of months, things started to take off as the ground has been acquired to build the school. We only made people aware of this recently and we have raised nearly £6,000. Jamie sent me a text saying 'wow! What's going on?' after raising so much money so quickly."

The 82-year-old, who still attends Parkhead every week as a fan, revealed it was former chief executive and current non-executive chairman Peter Lawwell who finally handed over that 'missing' European Cup medal in the corridors of Celtic Park around four years ago.

Rather poignantly, it was the day after Lisbon Lions captain Billy McNeill died. Fallon was supposed to take part in a medal presentation ceremony on the pitch at Celtic Park with his grandkids present but it never came to pass.

"I finally got my hands on a 1967 European Cup medal the day after big Billy died," Fallon said. "We were supposed to have a presentation on the park as I had the grandkids with me and they had been invited along.

"Peter was meant to do the handover of the medal at Celtic Park but he ended up just giving me my medal in the corridor as you enter the boardroom. I don't really know why it was all done like that. The good thing is I have finally got my European Cup medal and that is all that matters.

Fallon - a regular guest in the hospitality suites at Parkhead - is now hoping to persuade some of the businessmen who inhabit such parlours to get involved and help him turn the South Sudan school project into a reality.

He said: "I do the hospitality lounges at Celtic Park and I subtly mentioned it to a few of the businessmen and they said they would get in touch with people so hopefully the project will soar.

"I'm also hoping to get in touch with the Green Brigade [a Celtic ultras group known for its charitable activities] to help out. I want them to do a bucket collection for the cause."

When it comes to charitable causes, Doran and especially Fallon know that the 12th Lion School is in safe hands with the Celtic supporters.

For those who wish to find out more about the 12th Lion School or to donate to the JustGiving page, click here