'Rapid Vienna's cheating denied me a shot at European glory' says Grant

THE craze of adding a 'gate' suffix to any scandal had not yet permeated the sporting world when Celtic found themselves embroiled in the most controversial European tie of their history 25 years ago.

If it had, then perhaps it would have become known as Bottlegate or Bandagegate. Even now Peter Grant still reflects on Rapid Vienna's progress to the quarter-finals of the Cup-Winners' Cup at Celtic's expense as one of the most blatant occurrences of cheating in sport.

Comparisons between Rudi Weinhofer, the Rapid player who feigned being struck by a missile at Parkhead back in 1984, and Harlequins winger Tom Williams may not be obvious.

But Celtic first team coach Peter Grant, who played in the tie against the Austrian side, believes Weinhofer's chicanery was every bit as cynical as the controversy which rocked English rugby.

"It was a bit like the 'Bloodgate' thing in rugby just now," observed Grant. "You just wondered what the guy was thinking about. It was just cheating, there was no doubt about it."

Promoting ticket sales for Rapid's return to Glasgow next week on Europa League business, Grant did his best to strike a conciliatory tone at yesterday's media briefing. But there is little doubt the sense of injustice among Celtic players and supporters from that era remains a powerful one.

After losing the first leg 3-1 in Vienna, a game which saw Celtic striker Alan McInally sent off, Davie Hay's men were in inspired form in the return at Parkhead. Leading 3-0 through goals from Brian McClair, Murdo MacLeod and Tommy Burns, they appeared to be cruising into the quarter-finals.

The tie took a dark and dramatic turn, however, when Reinhard Keinast was sent off for punching Burns inside the penalty area. It prompted a 15-minute break in play as the Rapid players remonstrated with the match officials.

Before the action restarted, with a penalty kick which Grant missed, Weinhofer left the field claiming he had been struck by one of several bottles thrown by Celtic supporters in the old 'Jungle' area of the stadium.

Television pictures showed Weinhofer, who left the ground with his head bandaged in comedy fashion, had not been hit. The crowd disorder remained a serious matter, however, and Rapid demanded Celtic's elimination from the tournament.

The Uefa disciplinary committee initially ruled that the result should stand. While Celtic were fined 4,000 for the bottle-throwing, Rapid were fined 5,000 for the conduct of their players, Keinast received a four-match ban and Weinhofer's claim that he had been struck was dismissed.

Rapid lodged an appeal, however, and, with a personal testimony from their club doctor, succeeded in persuading Uefa that Weinhofer was hit by a 'small object' which television pictures had not picked up.

The second leg was ordered to be replayed, at a venue no less than 100 miles from Parkhead. Old Trafford was selected and on a grim night for Celtic, they lost 1-0 to a goal from Peter Pacult, who is now the Rapid manager. Sadly, the frustration of the Celtic fans manifested itself in violence as both Pacult and Rapid goalkeeper Karl Ehn were assaulted following pitch invasions. Uefa subsequently imposed a 17,000 fine on Celtic and ordered them to play their next home European tie behind closed doors. Rapid went on to reach the final of the tournament where they lost 3-1 to Everton.

"I remember supporting Everton in the final," said Grant. "I thought 'surely they can't go and win it?'. It would have been totally unjust for football if they had. It made it worse to think it could have been us there.

"I genuinely believe we had a group of players who could have got there. I'm not saying we would have won it, but we could have reached the final.

"Then the following season, we played really well to get a 1-1 draw away to Atletico Madrid in our first round tie, but came back to Glasgow for the second leg with about 50 people inside the ground because of the ban. So there was a snowball effect from that night.

"I felt that was as close as I was going to get to any sort of run in Europe in my career."

Grant recalls the impotence of the Celtic board 25 years ago with as much frustration as he does the conduct of the Rapid players.

"As a group of players, we felt the club should have been stronger and refused to play the third game," he said.

"We felt Celtic as a club was bigger than Rapid Vienna throughout Europe. We felt the club should have made a stance. We felt Celtic had done nothing wrong. Sometimes you can't fight Uefa and you are in the position of having to go to the courts. I don't think the people in charge of Celtic at the time wanted the club's name dragged through the courts. But we felt if Rapid had complained, why shouldn't we complain? The players had done nothing wrong.

"If it had been down to Davie Hay, we wouldn't have played the game. He was raging."

Time does at least allow Grant to recall the events at Celtic Park in '84 with some degree of humour.

"I can clearly remember standing beside Paul McStay, about four feet away from Hans Krankl who was playing for Rapid, and Paul was speaking in his best Inspector Clouseau accent, saying 'Hans, you are a cheat'," smiled Grant. "Hans just looked blankly at us.

"To be honest, we were lucky still to be in the tie after the first leg in Vienna. We were fortunate only to be 3-1 down and felt that gave us a chance at Parkhead. That's how it turned out. We won it comfortably in the end.

"But hand on heart, in the replay at Old Trafford, Rapid thoroughly deserved to win."

Grant is now more concerned about the threat posed by the current Rapid side who eliminated Aston Villa in the play-off round and began their Group C campaign with an impressive 3-0 defeat of top seeds Hamburg. "They are an excellent side," he said. "I watched them at Villa Park and they could have scored five. We will need to have all our big players playing well."