Celtic and politics have always been intertwined - Kevin McKenna

In the first leg in France, Celtic had endured a torrid night and were probably happy to accept a 2-0 defeat. Their tormentor-in-chief was the rather wonderful Malian player Salif Keita, who scored one of the goals.

Now, in this return leg at Parkhead, it seemed he might become responsible for Celtic spinning out of the competition at the first hurdle for the second season in a row – an inauspicious record for the team who were champions of Europe only 16 months previously.

Celtic were approaching half-time still goalless when Keita scored what seemed a perfectly legitimate goal. This would have rendered their task – already difficult – nigh-on impossible. The referee opted, though, to disallow it for offside. The Hoops took full advantage and subsequently destroyed a very fine St Etienne with four un-replied goals.

My dad, a very political man, is convinced that Celtic’s redemption was due to cataclysmic events then unfolding in Eastern Europe. The referee - Zdenek Vales – was from Czechoslovakia, as were both of his assistants. Vales also awarded the Hoops a somewhat dodgy penalty just before half-time that allowed Tommy Gemmell to begin the fightback.

Celtic had originally been drawn to play Hungarian champions Ferencvaros in the first round. The board, though, told UEFA they intended not to play the match in protest at the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia the previous month.

Other major European clubs backed Celtic and UEFA were forced to re-draw the first round so that clubs from the east and the west would be kept apart.

Did Celtic benefit on this occasion for their stand against the invasion of Czechoslovakia? Robert Kelly, the chairman at the time, certainly did. A year later he was knighted for his lifetime contribution to football as an administrator. Yet it was felt by many – including my dad – that his intervention in global politics which had humiliated Britain’s Cold War enemy helped a lot. 

The Celtic statement read: “In view of the illegal and treacherous invasion of Czechoslovakia by Russian, Polish and Hungarian forces and in support of the Czech nation, we, the Celtic Football Club, do not think that any western European football club should be forced to fulfil any football commitment in any of these countries.”

Curiously Jock Stein, the greatest figure in Scottish football history, never received a knighthood while his two great managerial contemporaries, Matt Busby and Alf Ramsay, both did. I’m not suggesting that either of these men didn’t deserve a knighthood (if you’re into that sort of thing) but Stein’s achievement in leading Celtic to the European Cup - the first British side to do so - was exceptional. In less than two years he had turned a very ordinary Celtic team, not then considered to be among the top four in Scotland, into the best side in Europe.

Whereas Kelly had won favour with the British establishment Stein, unwittingly, had fallen foul of them. In 2007, papers released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Stein was abruptly dropped from the 1968 New Year's honours list following Celtic’s ill-fated brawl with Racing Club in Uruguay in the precursor to the World Club championship the previous year.

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Having endured the Argentinian champions’ thuggery over two legs of a bruising tie, Celtic’s players snapped in the play-off. Perhaps, having realised they’d be afforded no protection by the referee from the Argentinians’ brutality, the Hoops players simply decided they’d have to protect themselves. Which they duly did, and with extreme prejudice.

The Celts, led admirably in these skirmishes by Bertie Auld and Tommy Gemmell, set right aboot their opponents. Gemmell, in particular, ought to have been mentioned in dispatches for a rather spectacular boot to an opponent's haw-maws following yet another cowardly assault on his fallen comrade, Jimmy Johnstone.

Gemmell’s supreme act of gallantry in the face of enemy fire was captured gloriously by the BBC and played endlessly for weeks thereafter. It was probably Britain’s best moment in Montevideo since the forced scuttling of the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in the battle of the River Plate in December 1939.

Celtic’s players – realising that they would never be allowed to win the game – simply exacted reasonable and proportionate retribution for the iniquities of the previous few weeks. Speaking as a Glaswegian I couldn’t have been more proud of them. I might only have been three years old at the time but the story would delight me for many years afterwards when re-counted by my dad and uncles.

The British authorities didn’t quite see it that way. A letter from the old Scottish Office to Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1970 revealed their disdain for Celtic’s actions.

This is what it said: “When Glasgow Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup in 1967 we failed to recognise this with an honour for Stein to whom, as manager, a great deal of the credit was due.

“His name was I understand removed from the New Year's Honours list because of the unfortunate events in South America. The next year when Manchester United won the European Cup an immediate knighthood went to Matt Busby in the birthday list.”

The letter to Wilson was written immediately prior to Celtic’s second European Cup final appearance in Milan against Feyenoord. It continued: “If Celtic win for the second time, I really don't see how we can avoid an award to Stein. I think a CBE would be appropriate.”

Jock Stein would get his CBE later that year, but deserved a knighthood.

And here’s a wee footnote, which admittedly probably falls into the category of conspiracy theory. Astonishingly, when Celtic were originally drawn against Ferencvaros in 1968 it would have been the eighth time in six seasons they’d been drawn against eastern European, communist countries. This was during an intense period when the Cold War between the US and its NATO allies and the Soviets was threatening to go nuclear.

Celtic were thus more often in Eastern Europe than Henry bloody Kissinger, the great US diplomat. Had British intelligence placed 0067 in the heart of Celtic’s official party for these visits to spy on the Soviets?

Henry Kissinger was a keen football fan. In 1962 he had used his knowledge of the game to detect the presence of Soviet forces in Cuba at the start of the Missile Crisis.

Aerial photographs of suspected Soviet missile sites on Cuba revealed the markings of football pitches. “Cubans don’t play football,” said Kissinger. It was this which convinced him that there was a Russian presence on Cuba. This coincided exactly with Celtic’s first foray into Europe. In the next five years they would visit Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Russia (twice).

Did Kissinger lean on NATO to force UEFA to rig these draws to ensure Celtic would always get a trip behind the old Iron Curtain? My dad also told me that Kissinger had a soft spot for the Hoops, too. So it all kind of fits, I suppose.