Following their Cup triumph against Liverpool in 1914, Burnley FC undertook a Continental tour. This was reported back to the local newspaper by means of a ‘diary’ kept by ‘our correspondent’. He reported that, having played a match in Berlin, the party arrived in Budapest, after a seventeen-hour train journey, where a game had been arranged for Burnley, as English Cup Winners, to play Celtic.
Celtic were not only Scottish Cup Winners but also Scottish League Champions. Although the game was supposed to be a friendly, a little needle was introduced by the presentation by the newspaper, Hungarian Times of a handsome trophy for the winners (could this have been the first European Cup?) and a set of medals for each team.
The correspondent laconically noted in his diary, ‘We spent the morning in a quiet manner and in the afternoon we played the Scottish Cup Winners’. He did, however, write a separate report on the game itself.
The match was, in fact, played on the 21st May 1914 in front of 18,000 spectators and resulted in a 1-1 draw, both goals coming from penalties – it was described as an ‘even but rough’ game. Other sources have said that the game was anything but a ‘friendly’ – there were plenty of hard men on both sides!
The Burnley team were willing to play extra time, but Celtic did not agree. Notwithstanding this, the medals were presented. The Cup was tossed for and Burnley won it, but it was later agreed that a replay should be held for the trophy, at Turf Moor, at a future date.
The replay duly took place at Turf Moor on 1st September, 1914, when it was billed by the local newspaper as a ‘Contest for the Continental Cup’. Since that first match, however, a slight complication had arisen, in that the First World War had broken out and Hungary was on the other side! There could, therefore, be no official representatives of that country at the game. Suffice to say that Celtic won another hard fought game, 2-1, in front of some 9,000 spectators.
As there was no one at the match from Hungary, the Cup was not available to be presented, and some mystery surrounds what happened to it. According to the Celtic Football Club it was raffled in Hungary, later in the year, in aid of War charities!
