Francis Haffey (born 28 November 1938) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and the Scottish national team.

Career

Remembered as one of Celtic's great and more eccentric keepers, Haffey made 201 appearances for the club in major competitions. He had 61 clean-sheets and was first-choice goalkeeper for five seasons but did not win any trophies apart from one minor

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...

in 1961–62, finishing on the losing side in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

, both of which went to a replay. After breaking an ankle in the

against

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

in November 1963, effectively ending his Celtic career, he left the following October to play for

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

. Soon thereafter, Haffey moved to Australia, where after a five-year spell as a footballer there he found his way into the entertainment business as a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

singer, and later operated a goalkeeping centre on the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...

International

On his full international debut Haffey saved a

Bobby Charlton Sir Robert Charlton (born 11 October 1937) is an English former footballer who played either as a midfielder or a forward. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cu ...

penalty in a 1–1 home draw versus England in 1960.Haffey's upside-down world
The Sunday Times, 12 January 2003 In 1961, his second and final cap was also versus England. At

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, the inexperienced Scotland team with 4 debutants averaged less than 6 full caps per player pre-kick off. The game was 5-3 with 12 minutes to go. Scotland lost 9–3. Neither Haffey nor

Bert McCann Robert Johnston McCann (15 October 1932 – 12 September 2017) was a Scottish footballer, who played as a wing half for Dundee North End, Dundee United, Queen's Park, Motherwell, Hamilton Academical and Scotland. McCann represented Scotland ...

(5 caps) played for Scotland again even though McCann scored. Only one of the 4 debutants that day collected a career total of more than 4 caps meaning 5 of the team ended their international careers with 5 caps or less.

References

External links

* *
Short Article on a Photograph of HaffeyInterview with Haffey
from ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' 1938 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow People from Govan Scottish footballers Association football goalkeepers Celtic F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Scotland international footballers Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish Football League players Expatriate soccer players in Australia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia English Football League players {{Scotland-footy-goalkeeper-stub