The Toronto Cup was a three-club tournament played during a miserable four week north American tour held in the wake of the 1970 European Cup final defeat.

A sombre Celtic arrived in Toronto on May 10th with the tour got off to the worst possible start thanks to a 16 hour flight delay. Just a day after landing in Canada the Bhoys faced Manchester United in their first game of the round-robin Toronto Cup at the Varsity Stadium. The English side unsurprisingly took advantage of the Bhoys' fatigue and cruised to a 2-0 win before a 20,000 crowd to claim the trophy which was sponsored by local side Toronto City.

Celtic's now meaningless next fixture in the tournament against Bari was scheduled for Saturday May 16th but a spectacular electric storm meant the game was postponed to the following day. Celtic had met Bari previously in midweek in an exhibition game in New York which ended 1-1 thanks to a late Harry Hood equaliser.

A poor crowd of just over 3,000 attended the Toronto Cup clash at the Exhibition Stadium in a farcical match which ended in a contoversial 2-2 draw. With the scores level in the closing stages of the match Bari had their keeper sent off for an outrageous rugby tackle on Lou Macari. The Bari bench responded by making a number of substitions which allowed them to somehow sneak on another player to bring them back up to full strength for several minutes before the ref realised what had gone on. Then another Bari player was sent off for another foul on Macari and in the clsoing minutes Celtic were awarded a penalty. The Bari bench urged their players to leave the field in protest and the Italians disappeared down the tunnel before the kick was taken.

The locally-based ref called an end to proceedings only for Bari to re-emerge to play out the dying minutes! The officials had seen enough though and the match was over.