Why Jock never got the honour he deserved
Morning all
In morning with a severe lack of newsworthy or credible stories circulating my attention was turned to this story printed in the Fox Sports network. I know I will further incur the wrath of a poster of another forum whom feels that Celtic news is his property and feels my Cut n paste jobs would have been worthy of a job at Fairfield’s but I will post it regardless.
I apologise not, for bringing Celtic news to the masses, and you are not the only one capable of using online translation sites JJ!
Why 'Sir Jock' never arose
- From staff writers
AN INFAMOUS 1967 match, which became known as the "Battle of the River Plate", deprived legendary Celtic and Scotland manager, the late Jock Stein, of a knighthood, it was reported today (AEST).
The Scotsman
reports newly-released correspondence between Willie Ross, the then Scottish secretary, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson, has revealed Stein was originally included in the 1968 New Year Honours List, but his name was removed at the last minute.The 1970 letter sheds fresh light on the question of why Stein was never knighted, despite being the first manager to lead a British team to victory in the European Cup.
The late Alf Ramsey, the England manager, was named in the Birthday Honours immediately after leading England to the victory in the 1966 World Cup.
In the 1968 New Year Honours, there was a knighthood for Bob Kelly, then the Celtic chairman, but no mention of Stein.
And the late Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, was knighted the same year after his team won the European Cup, adding insult to injury among those who wanted to see a similar honour for Stein.
In the past, his omission has been attributed to anti-Scots and anti-working-class prejudice. But the documents reveal the disastrous clash between Celtic and Argentina side Racing Club led to Stein's name being taken off the list at the 11th hour.
The letter from Mr Ross to Mr Wilson reveals that Stein had been "removed from the New Year's List at a late stage because of the unfortunate events in South America".
The match in Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, was the third meeting between the two sides. The previous two games, one in Glasgow, which Celtic won, and the other, in Buenos Aires, which the Parkhead side lost, had involved so much provocation and dirty play that Mr Kelly wanted to pull out of the final game.
However, Stein believed his players could rise above it all. He was wrong.
It deteriorated into a brawl, with armed police and sword-wielding soldiers called to the pitch to separate the fighting players.
Four Celtic players and two from Racing Club were sent-off by referee Rodolfo Osorio, threatened to remove randomly chosen players from the pitch if the fighting did not stop.
Fights even broke out among the sports writers who had gone to cover the match.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt