Unforgiven Rapid Vienna – Why bearing grudges is an important part of football

You only have to have witnessed the season of bounce games that constituted season 2020/21 to see that football without fans is indeed nothing at all.

All across Europe the strangest of results cropped up weekly, and many of the big-hitters, sides often inspired to produce that extra ten or twenty per cent, paid the price of not having the backing of their faithful. Indeed, Celtic fans don’t need reminding that the only season in the last eleven where we’ve not won the league title was when the team couldn’t count on the support of Celtic’s traditional twelfth man.

Celtic had also suffered from such an experience, albeit in a one-off match, back on 10 October, 1985, when we played the second leg of the now defunct European Cup Winners Cup tie against Atletico Madrid and supporters were barred from attending. No live TV, no radio, only 300 carefully-vetted personnel allowed inside to watch.

And as Celtic head to face our second Austrian opponent of the week, it is it is worth remembering it was that very club who were responsible for that occurring, and it’s why the name of Rapid Vienna will always be met with disdain by supporters, of a certain vintage shall we say.

On that occasion the absence of supporters wasn’t due to concerns of infection, rather as punishment for Celtic supporter’s behaviour the previous season against Rapid Vienna at Old Trafford. A travesty of justice from that second leg, turned into self-inflicted pain in the replayed match.

Rapid had won the bad-tempered first leg in Vienna 3–1 on 24 October 1984. Alan McInally was sent off and Peter Grant accused of stamping on one of the opposition players. As a result, the atmosphere in the second leg at Celtic Park a fortnight later was always going to be hostile. That hostility towards Rapid helped drive Celtic on, as they won 3-0 to turn the tie around and win 4-3 on aggregate. Or so it seemed. In the end the tie was not to be settled that night.

During the game the tackles were flying in, with Rapid Vienna in particular being aggressive to say the least in their approach, as indeed they had been in the first game. At one point in the game, a bottle was thrown from the Celtic support and landed near Rapid’s goalkeeper Herbert Feurer, just after he’d had a kick out in the box at Tommy Burns, missed by the match officials. A Rapid player then fell to the ground-claiming to have been struck by a missile from the terracing-as the players surrounded the referee.

If it was an attempt to get the game abandoned it was unsuccessful and the match was played to a conclusion, only for it to come out later that the linesman claimed he too had been struck by missiles from the Celtic support. Rapid lodged a formal complaint to UEFA and the match was replayed at Old Trafford in Manchester, amongst much claims of UEFA lobbying by Rapid and many rumours of general skulduggery.

Remarkably, more people attended the match in Manchester than the tie at Celtic Park. Rapid won the second leg replay 1-0 which gave them a 4-1 aggregate win and they progressed to the next round.

The replay of the second leg was not devoid of any violence either. Herbert Feurer was targeted by the Celtic fans for abuse throughout after his behaviour in the first leg. One fan managed to get on the pitch and assault the Austrian goalkeeper and another Rapid player took a kick to the groin as the teams were escorted off the pitch at full time.

As a result, Celtic were fined £17,000 and ordered to play their next home European game behind closed doors. The fact Rapid Vienna went on to contest the final that season losing to a fine Everton side in the final left a lot of people thinking what might have been had it not been for the playacting antics of those Rapid Vienna players and questionable decision making from UEFA. To this day there remain many supporters with no time for the club.

So it came to pass that Celtic having gained a very creditable 1-1 draw in the first leg in Madrid had to forego the home crowd advantage that so often gives our players the edge on big European nights.

The game itself kicked off at 2pm when most supporters would have been at work, there was a near complete media blackout, though limited highlights were allowed after the game.

Celtic, despite a late Roy Aitken goal couldn’t muster any further threat to the Atletico Madrid goal and lost 2-1 on the night, exiting the Cup Winners Cup 3-1 on aggregate.

In yet another ‘what might have been’ twist of fate, Atletico went on to reach the final of the Cup winners Cup in 1986 where they lost to Dynamo Kiev.

This was a good Celtic side, one more than capable of holding their own in European competition and the feeling remains that Rapid Vienna’s behaviour, a side Celtic manager Davie Hay simply described as ‘cheats’, impacted on Celtic’s chances of European glory, in not only one but two consecutive years of European competition.

For some, water may have flown under the bridge, and for others too young to remember it may well be something that should be forgotten and forgiven, but as Celtic head to Vienna on Saturday to face Rapid once again, for no doubt a far friendlier occasion, it is certainly something not everyone can forget or forgive quite so easily.

Rapid Vienna? Unforgiven.

Niall J

About Author

As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

5 Comments

  1. The common theme here is that players and officials were targeted by Celtic fans, which gave Rapid the opportunity to do what they did. It also allowed them to win through to the next round, which they did not deserve even. Celtic fans were to blame here – don’t deflect like certain other fans do. We let our club down that night. There should be no hypocrisy here. We, as Celtic fans, should always represent our club properly.

  2. Stuart Murdoch on

    Being a “Celtic Da”, I was at those Rapid games, both at home and at Old Trafford. I will never forget nor forgive what happened. I genuinely fear that we will pick up injuries during this game on Saturday and question the mentality of playing them at all. Fingers crossed 🤞.

    • Yes rapid behaved terribly but the person who lobbed the bottle is as much to blame. …

  3. The Rapid Vienna player went down as if he had been felled by a rock. Footage of the game showed that nothing had went anywhere near him. Rapid should have been told to chase themselves but UEFA, as they often have, acted like clowns, giving the cheats what they wanted.

    They were a disgrace and there has never been an apology from anybody at Rapid for the simulation or pressing for a replay on a bogus pretext. I don’t know why we play them in friendlies every year.