Shamrock Rovers rue ‘prejudiced’ refereeing performance in Vienna: ‘It was the most disgusting piece of refereeing I’ve ever seen’ - Farce under the floodlights from the 1964 European Cup

Shamrock Rovers will take on Rapid Vienna in the league stage of the Conference League this coming Thursday in the Austrian capital. It will be the second tie that the teams will meet in European action, and comes in the year marking the 60 year anniversary of their last match.

Safe to say the Hoops were not happy with the refereeing performance in the first leg of their Preliminary Round of the European Cup against Rapid Vienna as was clear when extratime.com took a look back at that European tie from September 1964.

In Rovers’ match programme for the second leg, the editorial noted that:

‘All our boys were looking forward to our visit to Vienna, the city of laughter and song. But, alas, how one man changed the pattern of things. We already know of one gentleman who in 1939 plunged the world into misery. In Vienna we had a man called a referee, who brought gloom and misery on us. It was the most blatant and disgusting piece of refereeing I have ever seen.’

That first leg was played out in the Praterstadion (now the Ernst Happel Stadium) in Vienna in front of over 40,000 spectators before Rovers welcomed SK Rapid to Dublin for the second leg under the Dalymount Park floodlights on the 30^th September 1964.

The teams had actually played each other in an international tournament in New York in 1961, before three years later being drawn out against one another in the European Cup. The 1964 matches were Rovers’ only outing in the premier UEFA competition that decade.

Rovers dominated in the FAI Cup winning seven times in the 1960s including an incredible six in a row between 1964 and 1969 but their only league title came in 1964 in a season when they won the double.

All the talk after the 3-0 first leg win for the home side in Vienna on 16^th September was about the Czech referee Mr. Fencrl.

In the first half alone he awarded Sportkclub Rapid 49 free-kicks and Rovers just the one. The Hoops scored from that one free kick in the 18^th minute with Jackie Mooney heading home Johnny Fullam’s centre only for it to be ruled out for offside. 

The home side took the lead in the 27^th minute with Glechner rattling the ball into the net with a terrific effort. Nuske scored just before the hour mark when Seitl’s shot was blocked and he slotted home the rebound and Glechner added a third soon after by which time Rovers were down a man.

The ref sent off Tony O’Connell in the 57^th minute in a game that the Hoops finished with just eight players after Paddy Ambrose and Liam Tuohy had to leave the field due to injuries. O’Connell had started the day by becoming a father with his wife having given birth to a daughter in Dublin.

The Irish Independent match report penned by W. P. Murphy from Vienna noted: ‘There was no reason that I could see why O’Connell should have been sent off, but here was a match watched by 43,000 people, but ruled by one dictator with a whistle. He was grossly unfair.’

It was always going to be a tough task to take on Rapid who at the time had won the Austrian title on 22 occasions.

Their team was packed with Austrian internationals including Walter Glechner, Paul Halla and Rudolf Flögel. They had the Yugoslavian goalkeeper Veres in between the posts, keeping the Austrian international team’s number one Pichler out of the team.

HOOPS GOT RAW DEAL was the headline in the Indo with their match report opening: 

For 90 minutes in Prater Park last night the Viennese, world famous for music, had a whistling solo from a Czechoslovakian referee Fencrl, which was not to the liking of the attendance…Life must indeed be grim behind the Iron Curtain when a referee can sell his soccer soul to get a return ticket to Vienna.’

The Irish Press called it ‘A farce under the floodlights’ with the Evening Herald suggesting that ‘Shamrock Rovers at one stage contemplated walking off the field in protest’. Even the local press criticised the referee with the Viennese sporting paper Die Sportschau noting ‘the referee was prejudiced, with his decisions in favour of the home side’.

Hoops skipper Liam Tuohy said after the game: “In all my years of playing football on the Continent, European Cup matches and internationals, I have never seen anything like it.”

Rovers Director Des Cunningham said: “It was the worst exhibition I have ever seen,” was the assessment afterwards. “How our players managed to keep their tempers I do not know.”

Rapid: Veres; Halla, Höltl; Hasil, Glechner ©, Ullmann; Schmid, Wolny, Seitl, Flögel, Nuske.

Shamrock Rovers: Henderson; Nolan, Courtney; Mulligan, Farrell, Fullam; O’Neill, Ambrose, Mooney, Tuohy ©, O’Connell. 

A fine bunch of sportsmen

The second leg took place 60 years ago in a packed Dalymount Park with 32,000 spectators watching on.

The editorial in the match programme as well as slating the first leg referee noted that ‘it is to be clearly understood that we have no fault to find with the players of Rapid – they are a great side and a fine bunch of sportsmen’.

With SK Rapid wearing green and white stripes, Rovers wore a change strip of pale yellow with black shorts.

UEFA appointed the highly regarded Dutch referee Leo Horn for the second leg. During his career he would officiate two European Cup Finals and he had been the official in charge of Hungary’s famous 6-3 win in Wembley in 1953 – the second ever time England had lost at home to a foreign side (the first was Ireland’s win in 1949 in Goodison Park).

With O’Connell suspended, in came Tony Byrne while John Keogh returned to the team as did Bailham – he had scored a hat-trick against Shelbourne in the league game prior to the second leg. 

It was scoreless at the break but any comeback thoughts to set up a replay that was scheduled for Frankfurt in a fortnight’s time were extinguished early in the second half. Franz Wolny picked up a loose Ronnie Nolan pass and after an excellent run his powerful left foot shot from outside the area beat Henderson.

Five minutes from time the visitors grabbed a second goal with Rudolph Flögel running onto a flick from Hasil to score.

The Irish Examiner match report noted:

The crowd paid tribute to the Rapid Team by giving them a well deserved ovation. A reporter from Vienna paid tribute to the sporting Irish crowd after the game. “I shall tell them back in Vienna about it,” he said.

Shamrock Rovers: Henderson; Keogh, Courtney; Nolan, Farrell, Fullam; Byrne, Mooney, Bailham, Tuohy ©, O’Neill.

Rapid: Veres; Halla, Höltl; Skocik, Glechner ©, Ullmann; Schmid, Wolny, Hasil Flögel, Seitl