The South African touring side which played Celtic in September 1899

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The Celtic Star

·6 August 2024

The South African touring side which played Celtic in September 1899

Lack of understanding or intolerance? The Orange Free State Football Team, a touring side who broke many boundaries back in the late nineteenth century…

In the late nineteenth century a side would visit these shores just when the beautiful game was in its infancy, and although welcomed by many, they weren’t treated with the courtesy and respect that they deserved by a country low on intolerance.

Our own side who at the time were only just over a decade old would have more in common and understood the touring side more than the other sides that would face them on their travels.

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That team was the Orange free state. A group of black South Africans who arrived in the UK as football was starting to become a popular sport on the African continent, mainly due to British colonialism in that part of the world.

Football was seen as a ‘white’ sport in South Africa due to the racial segregation that was created back then, and the popularity of the Sport led to the set up of the ‘All white South African football association’ in 1892.

But that didn’t deter the black community of South Africa who also earned the right to play the beautiful game. But they wanted to test themselves against other sides and headed to the UK to do just that as the racial segregation in their own country made it impossible for them to pit their wits against other sides.

They headed to the UK by boat for a mammoth 49 game tour in September 1899. They docked at Southampton and the 16 man squad would take on the best the UK had to offer.

The presence of the Africans drew huge crowds the length and breadth of the country. From Portsmouth to London, Kent to Birmingham, Newcastle to Belfast and of course our own city of Glasgow.

The South Africans played in orange tops and black shorts and folk were keen to see a team from outwith these shores as of course back then despite it being an up and coming world wide sport, football outside our own country was something of an alien concept.

The reception that our African visitors received was quite, to put it bluntly racist and disrespectful, even back in the days when ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘intolerance’ was seen as ‘acceptable’

The crowds welcomed the visitors, but racial terminology was often heard from the crowd and the press were just as bad with their reporting by having no qualms by printing their remarks on the written press. Something that I don’t feel comfortable writing down. It may have been a different era but racial remarks weren’t right back then, and they sure as hell aren’t today.

For example the South Africans official team name was known as a racial slur, and once again I’m not very comfortable writing it down.

The Orange Free State side headed to Glasgow to take on Celtic on 21 September. Celtic emerged victorious winning the game 2-0, indeed it was the first time the South Africans had failed to score on the tour. Although some records say the game finished 2-1, so we don’t actually know.

Not much is known about the game, but it was assumed that Celtic treated the game more like a ‘friendly’ and didn’t take it too seriously. Although I would like to think the crowd were more courteous to our visitors than some of the other crowds during the tour. However the press in our country were sadly as guilty as our English neighbours of ignorant remarks towards our visitors.

As for the Orange Free State team, they would depart Great Britain without a win in their mammoth tour, although they did win in France against Sporting club Tourcoing on their travels.

It was said they lacked the skill of playing the beautiful game, but in their favour they were only new to the game and were playing sides that were fully established, but it would have been a good learning experience for them all the same. On the park at least.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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