It’s generally accepted in Scotland that Celtic were victims of outrageous behaviour, both before and during the matches in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and that bluntly, the team was kicked off the park. Indeed, so bad was the treatment experienced by Celtic that their chairman was all for conceding the tie and heading home, and only fulfilled the play-off at the behest of their manager, Jock Stein: given the events in Uruguay, the former course would have been wiser.

That in 1971 and 1973 Ajax Amsterdam declined to participate in the Intercontinental Cup championship, as also Bayern Munich in 1974, is testament enough to the negative experiences of European clubs in the format of the tournament at that time (which is perhaps one of the reasons it was later changed to a one-off match in neutral territory).

As I say, I’m glad that Celtic didn’t win this cup, but given the circumstances as to how they lost, to this day you’ll not find any Rangers fans goading them with chants of Racing.

Roberto

Maschio (whose name translates as “male” in Italian) played for both Inter and Fiorentina (among other Italian clubs), as well as playing a few games for Italy as part of the second wave of “oriundi” in the 50s. In fact, he was the Azzurri captain for the “Battle of Santiago” against Chile in the 1962 World Cup.

He was also one of the “Angels with Dirty Faces”, with Sivori and Angelillo

Roberto