The 1980 Scottish Cup final was up there with any of them; he set up the winning and only goal in extra-time, picked up the sponsor’s Man of the Match award at the end of 120 energy-sapping minutes and then lifted the famous trophy aloft as captain.

Alas, the riot that broke out on the pitch after the final whistle kind of overshadowed his outstanding personal display and the result.

“This is like a scene out of Apocalypse Now,” said Archie MacPherson famously in his BBC commentary as Celtic and Rangers fans clashed and mounted police charged them in a desperate bid to restore order.

It had certainly been The Longest Day for McGrain and his team mates before that.

“It was an Old Firm derby, a cup final and the last game of the season so it was a tense occasion,” said McGrain as he looked back on the match, which took place 40 years ago today, earlier on this week.

“It was scorching hot as well. I remember it being a torrid game, a real end-to-end affair. It was quite scrappy if you ask me. I wouldn’t say it was a classic. But it ended up being fantastic for us because we won it.”

The fatigue that Billy McNeill’s men were feeling as the edgy encounter wore on didn’t prevent them from taking the lead after Davie Provan had swung a corner kick into the opposition penalty area in the 108th minute.

“When the cross came over I thought: ‘We need to get this ball out the park’,” said McGrain. “I was tired and the whole team was tired. It was such a hot day. We had everybody up for the corner kick so we could score from it and win the game from there. But I thought: ‘If I lose the ball here the next player behind me is big Peter (goalkeeper Latchford)’.

“It was a comical corner kick. It broke to me outside the box. My first instinct was to get the ball out the park, to waste time. I miskicked it. George (McCluskey) stuck his foot out and it went in. A typical George McCluskey goal! I think Peter McCloy (the Rangers keeper) must have been too busy chuckling at my effort to save it!”

The shameful events that unfolded after referee George Smith brought an end to proceedings were no laughing matter.

“It was a great moment to be presented with the trophy,” said McGrain. “We had just beaten our greatest rivals after extra-time, our side of Glasgow was going mental. We were looking forward to going out onto the park to celebrate with our fans. I looked out and saw a few people on the park. I thought: ‘Well, I suppose that’s allowed in the circumstances’. But all of a sudden there were 200, 300, there.

“When we went down to the stairs to the pitch side we were told we couldn’t go out on the park to do the lap of honour. We didn’t know what was happening. A policemen came over and said: ‘It’s a battle out there’. It was the right decision. There were too many arms and legs flying about. It wouldn’t have been safe.

“When we came out of the ground there was a lot of police running about chasing people. But we got on the bus with the cup, not giving two hoots about anything. We were in our own world. We weren’t really aware of quite how bad it was. By the time we got back to Celtic Park, though, we had heard on the radio what had happened, how many people had been arrested.”

It was an unfortunate way for Bobby Lennox to bow out at Celtic. The Lisbon Lion, who had come on for Johnny Doyle in the second-half, picked up his 26th winner’s medal that afternoon. But the legendary striker was denied the opportunity to say a farewell to the fans and receive their appreciation for all of his heroics over the previous 17 years. McGrain felt for his friend.

“Bobby is the best guy I have ever met in football,” he said. “He is a nicest man you will ever come across. I played with him from the minute I broke into the team until he left. He was such a great professional. He loved the game.

“He always had a smile on his face Bobby, good, bad or indifferent. He had a great sense of humour. It was a shame for him I suppose. But at the end of the day he got the medal and he got the bonus. I am sure he was quite happy with that.”

McGrain was pleased for McNeill. The European Cup-winning skipper had succeeded Jock Stein two years earlier and lifted the Premier Division title at the end of his debut season in the dugout at Parkhead with a famous final day win over Rangers. But that was his first Scottish Cup triumph as a coach. “It was great for Billy to have done that as a player and then as a manager,” he said.

The riot, the worst in Scottish football in 70 years, led to 210 fans being arrested and 100 people suffering injuries, many of them serious. It also resulted in alcohol being banned from Scottish football grounds, an embargo that remains in place four decades later.

It hasn’t stopped the Celtic players of today growing accustomed to the taste of champagne in the last few years.

McGrain has sympathy for Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Odsonne Edouard just now. They have been denied the chance to win a record-equalling ninth consecutive Scottish title and complete a fourth straight domestic treble by the coronavirus pandemic and football shutdown.

Neil Lennon’s charges had been due to take on Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final when the game was suspended in March and could potentially have been taking part in the final yesterday.

“The chance has been taking away from them,” he said. “I am sure it will get finished later in the year when football starts up again. But going to Hampden in May to play in the Scottish Cup final is a great tradition and they have been denied that. Still, they have got to give them the Premiership. I think they deserve it.”

McGrain turned 70 at the start of this month and his birthday celebrations were curtailed somewhat by the Covid-19 outbreak and social distancing restrictions.

However, the Celtic great, a world-class footballer who overcame diabetes and a fractured jaw during his playing days and has made a full recovery from the minor heart attack he suffered six years ago, is meeting the challenge head on.

“It is hard,” he said. “It is a horrible situation. But you have just got to deal with it as best you can. I am okay. I still get out for walks, nothing too strenuous.”

Arsenal new boy Stephan Lichtsteiner is the third Swiss player to face a suspension for their controversial celebration during the World Cup.

Fellow Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka, along with Stoke winger Xherdan Shaqiri, were already facing a two match ban for their gestures against Serbia, plus a minimum £3,800 fine.

The charge comes after the trio all crossed their wrists together and linked thumbs to create the image of an eagle- which is the symbol of Albania – after a goal during their side’s 2-1 victory.

Shaqiri and Xhaka have Albanian or Kosovan roots, while Lichtsteiner doesn’t but appears to have joined the cause, as originally reported by Football.London.

A FIFA statement said: “The FIFA Disciplinary Committe has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Swiss player Stephan Lichtsteiner for a goal celebration during the match Switzerland vs Serbia.

“In relation to the same match, disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the President of the Serbian FA Slavisa Kokeza as well as the national coach Mladen Krstajic for statements made in the aftermath of the said match.”

It seems the Swiss players could have fallen foul of ‘Provoking the public’ and the suggested punishment is ‘Anyone who provokes the general public during a match will be suspended for two matches and sanctioned with a minimum fine of CHF 5,000.’

The bans would not affect the availability of either player at club level.

Full-back Lichtsteiner defended the celebration of his compatriots after the match.

He said: “”We had a lot of pressure, it was not an easy game for us.

“We have a lot of Albanians, so there is a lot of history between Serbia and Albania. It was a very tough game for them mentally.

“It was good. Why not? This is the history for them. The war between them was so difficult. I spoke to the father of one of our players who is Albanian, and he told me about this history. This is more than football. This is more than football because they have this period, this war that gave them both big problems.

“I understand them. I think it’s normal, it’s part of their life. There was also big provocation ahead of the game from them [Serbia], so I think it’s normal.”

Arsenal new boy Stephan Lichtsteiner is the third Swiss player to face a suspension for their controversial celebration during the World Cup.

Fellow Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka, along with Stoke winger Xherdan Shaqiri, were already facing a two match ban for their gestures against Serbia, plus a minimum £3,800 fine.

The charge comes after the trio all crossed their wrists together and linked thumbs to create the image of an eagle- which is the symbol of Albania – after a goal during their side’s 2-1 victory.

Shaqiri and Xhaka have Albanian or Kosovan roots, while Lichtsteiner doesn’t but appears to have joined the cause, as originally reported by Football.London.

A FIFA statement said: “The FIFA Disciplinary Committe has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Swiss player Stephan Lichtsteiner for a goal celebration during the match Switzerland vs Serbia.

“In relation to the same match, disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the President of the Serbian FA Slavisa Kokeza as well as the national coach Mladen Krstajic for statements made in the aftermath of the said match.”

It seems the Swiss players could have fallen foul of ‘Provoking the public’ and the suggested punishment is ‘Anyone who provokes the general public during a match will be suspended for two matches and sanctioned with a minimum fine of CHF 5,000.’

The bans would not affect the availability of either player at club level.

Full-back Lichtsteiner defended the celebration of his compatriots after the match.

He said: “”We had a lot of pressure, it was not an easy game for us.

“We have a lot of Albanians, so there is a lot of history between Serbia and Albania. It was a very tough game for them mentally.

“It was good. Why not? This is the history for them. The war between them was so difficult. I spoke to the father of one of our players who is Albanian, and he told me about this history. This is more than football. This is more than football because they have this period, this war that gave them both big problems.

“I understand them. I think it’s normal, it’s part of their life. There was also big provocation ahead of the game from them [Serbia], so I think it’s normal.”

At a recent World Cup warm-up match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Mexico’s national football team was missing one of its biggest stars: Rafael Marquez, the team’s captain and a legendary defender.

Marquez, a four-time World Cup veteran, was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department last year for allegedly aiding a powerful Mexican drug trafficker. His bank accounts were frozen in the US and Mexico and he was placed on a blacklist that bans Americans and US-based companies from doing business with him.

The sanctions also bar him from playing in the United States, his lawyer told ESPN last year.

Marquez, 39, who is affectionately known as Rafa, has denied allegations that he and two associates used several businesses to hold assets for Raul Flores Hernandez, a drug lord allied with the notorious Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation drug cartels.

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But his presence on Mexico’s national team has raised eyebrows, with some saying it is unseemly for Mexico, a country plagued by corruption and historic levels of drug-related violence, to employ a player accused of laundering cash for a drug kingpin.

“It is incredible that the authorities are allowing a person who is accused of money laundering to go and play a World Cup as if nothing happened,” said Raul Rodriguez, a 32-year-old chef in Mexico City.

“That impunity only happens in Mexico,” Rodriguez said. “If you or someone who is not famous had cheated, they would put you in jail.”

For the most part, though, Mexicans have embraced Marquez, who is poised to become one of only a handful of players to play in five World Cups on Sunday when Mexico takes on Germany in its first match.

At a ceremony at Mexico’s presidential palace two weeks ago, Marquez personally presented one of the team’s green World Cup jerseys to President Enrique Pena Nieto – who himself has been accused by Mexican journalists of corruption.

Supporters of Marquez emphasise that he has not been convicted of any crime – or even charged – and should not be prematurely penalised.

“Rafa is the soul of the national team, and if he is in trouble with the United States, we don’t care,” said Armando Diaz, a 43-year-old salesman in Mexico City.

“If he has problems with authorities, he can solve them later,” Diaz said. “Now he has to concentrate on the World Cup and play well so Mexico can win its games.”

Still, the sanctions have resulted in awkward moments, including Marquez’s absence during last month’s friendly against Wales, which ended in a draw.

The companies that sponsor Mexico’s national team appear alarmed by his inclusion on the roster, and have taken steps so that they don’t seem to be doing business with Marquez.

At practices this week in Russia, while the rest of the team wore jerseys featuring the logos of Coca-Cola and other sponsors, Marquez sported a plain version without any of the brand names.

A statement from the Mexican team explained that the logos were removed “in order to have Rafa Marquez focused 100 per cent on sports” and that the team made the decision after consulting with experts.

Marquez was one of 21 Mexican nationals sanctioned by the Treasury Department last August for alleged ties to Flores, who is accused of smuggling drugs and laundering money from his base in Jalisco state since the 1980s.

Among those who also saw his assets frozen was Julio Cesar Alvarez Montelongo, a norteno band leader once praised by Pena Nieto as “a great example for Mexican youth”.

Several businesses associated with Marquez were sanctioned, including a football school that bears his name. The sanctions were a fall from grace for Marquez, whose stints with Barcelona, the New York Red Bulls and the Guadalajara club Atlas made him Mexican sports royalty.

He had a reputation as a philanthropist in Jalisco and in his native state of Michoacan, and had been working on creating a union for players in Mexico’s national football league. Many thought he had a future in Mexico’s football federation, or even in politics.

Jose Contreras, a 37-year-old architect, said he thought Marquez was allowed to play because the Mexican team needed him. It has not been performing well and earlier this month lost 2-0 in a friendly with Denmark.

“The national team is playing so badly that surely the managers did the impossible for him to play,” Contreras said. “The accusations against him are a shame because people in Mexico love him a lot.”

 – MCT

March 15 (UPI) — A professional poker player was indicted for wire fraud Thursday, accused of bilking investors out of more than $6 million in a scheme involving Super Bowl and World Cup tickets.

Federal prosecutors in California’s central district say Seyed Reza Ali Fazeli, 49, ran a bogus Las Vegas-based ticket business called Summit Entertainment, which he used to solicit investors in California, Texas and Nevada, promising big returns on the resale of tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl and the upcoming 2018 World Cup.

After investors wired more than $6 million to Ali, he “falsely told the victims that the ticket sales did not go well because the NFL prohibited their resale and that he was working on a settlement with the NFL,” prosecutors said.

But court documents show that Ali never purchased the tickets.

“Instead, he used the money for gambling expenses at the Aria and Bellagio casinos in Las Vegas and for personal expenses,” prosecutors said.

Ali was charged with two counts of wire fraud an faces up to 40 years in prison.

He also faces several civil lawsuits related to the ticket scheme, the Orange County Register reported.

This isn’t the first time Ali was involved in a high-dollar ticket-flipping scheme.

In 2006, he sold World Cup tickets online through onlinetickets.com. But those tickets were never received, resulting in a lawsuit and a $1,176,500 settlement against Ali.

March 16 (UPI) — A professional poker player was indicted for wire fraud Thursday for allegedly bilking investors out of more than $6 million in a scheme involving Super Bowl and World Cup tickets.

Federal prosecutors in California’s central district say Seyed Reza Ali Fazeli, 49, ran a bogus Las Vegas-based ticket business called Summit Entertainment, which he used to solicit investors in California, Texas and Nevada, promising big returns on the resale of tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl and the upcoming 2018 World Cup.

After investors wired more than $6 million to Ali, he “falsely told the victims that the ticket sales did not go well because the NFL prohibited their resale and that he was working on a settlement with the NFL,” prosecutors said.

But court documents show that Ali never purchased the tickets.

“Instead, he used the money for gambling expenses at the Aria and Bellagio casinos in Las Vegas and for personal expenses,” prosecutors said.

Ali was charged with two counts of wire fraud and faces up to 40 years in prison.

He also faces several civil lawsuits related to the ticket scheme, the Orange County Register reported.

This isn’t the first time Ali was involved in a high-dollar ticket-flipping scheme.

In 2006, he sold World Cup tickets online through onlinetickets.com. But those tickets were never received, resulting in a lawsuit and a $1,176,500 settlement against Ali.

March 15 (UPI) — A professional poker player was indicted for wired fraud Thursday for allegedly bilking investors out of more than $6 million in a scheme involving Super Bowl and World Cup tickets.

Federal prosecutors in California’s central district say Seyed Reza Ali Fazeli, 49, ran a bogus Las Vegas-based ticket business called Summit Entertainment, which he used to solicit investors in California, Texas and Nevada, promising big returns on the resale of tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl and the upcoming 2018 World Cup.

After investors wired more than $6 million to Ali, he “falsely told the victims that the ticket sales did not go well because the NFL prohibited their resale and that he was working on a settlement with the NFL,” prosecutors said.

But court documents show that Ali never purchased the tickets.

“Instead, he used the money for gambling expenses at the Aria and Bellagio casinos in Las Vegas and for personal expenses,” prosecutors said.

Ali was charged with two counts of wire fraud an faces up to 40 years in prison.

He also faces several civil lawsuits related to the ticket scheme, the Orange County Register reported.

This isn’t the first time Ali was involved in a high-dollar ticket-flipping scheme.

In 2006, he sold World Cup tickets online through onlinetickets.com. But those tickets were never received, resulting in a lawsuit and a $1,176,500 settlement against Ali.