This was a regular Youth Tournament for U-21 players from teams throughout Europe and had been staged every year in Geneva from 1955. The format of the competition was to play a series of full 90-minute games and for young professionals to get to know others that were embarking on a full time professional career. The games were played in the home of the Geneva club, Chenois – the Stade des Trois-Chêne, in Chêne-Bourg (Genève).
The tournament was dropped in 1999.
Celtic were invited to send a team to the tournament at the beginning of the 1985-86 season. The invitation worked well with the invitation to the Blue Cross U-20 Tournament staged in Zurich which would be held just before and would allow pretty much the same group of players to attend both tournaments.
Celtic were drawn in a group with CSKA Sofia, Boavista and Neuchatel Xamax. CSKA cancelled just prior to the tournament due to problems obtaining visas for their players.
14/5/86 -v- CSKA Sofia (match forfeited)
17/5/86 -v- Boavista Celtic win 1-0 with the goal scored by Sandy Fraser
18/7/86 -v- Neuchatel Xamax drew 1-1 after controlling the game for 80 minutes. Goal by Tommy McEntaggart
These reults and the others between the participants meant that Celtic went into the Finals (there were several and no one overall winner) against Atlético Madrid.
Finals
19/7/86 played in front of a crowd of 7000
Atlético Madrid 1-0 Celtic
According to reports Celtic played well against a very skillful Madrid side and ended up losing to a John Traynor own goal late in the second half when a sclaffed clearance rebounded off of someone’s calf to beat the goalkeeper (who is not named?)
Sandy Fraser was praised for his performance throughout the tournament and the soon-to-be-signed Anton Rogan won an award of some kind from the organisers.
Other participants in this tournament that played in other matches were:
Paris St Germain, CS Chenois and Standard Liege.
Little detail remains of these games and the report in the Celtic View at the start of the 1986/87 season is sketcy and without teamsheets.