UK Edition
Billy McNeill, giant of Scottish football and Celtic captain who led the ‘Lisbon Lions’ to European glory – obituary
Billy McNeill – “Caesar” – who has died aged 79, was the first Briton to hold aloft the European Cup, as captain and rock-solid centre-half of the all-conquering Celtic team of 1967, the fabled “Lisbon Lions”. He also led the club to four Scottish championships as manager.
McNeill earned his nickname as the only car-owning member of the Celtic squad when the 1960 film Ocean’s 11 – in which most of the driving was performed by Cesar Romero – was popular with the players, but it stuck for other reasons: he was an emperor on the pitch.
Although he was not the most skilful player of the ball on the ground, McNeill was magnificent in the air; but perhaps the greatest quality he brought to the team was his indomitable spirit. And his relationship with the manager, Jock Stein, another Lanarkshire-born centre-half, was crucial to both his own success and to that of the team.
When Stein was appointed to the manager’s job at Parkhead in 1965, Celtic had been without a trophy for 11 years. McNeill, who had been considering a move, was instantly persuaded to stay. He had been signed for the club as a 17-year-old by Stein – then in charge of the reserves – and was bitterly disappointed when Stein left to manage Dunfermline in 1960 while Celtic continued to stagnate.
On his return Stein immediately made McNeill club captain, and the player soon repaid the favour by scoring the winning goal – a rocket header from the edge of the penalty area – to win the Scottish Cup final, 3-2 against Dunfermline. It was his only goal that season: goals from McNeill were rare but were often of special importance.
Celtic won the Scottish league in 1966 (as they would for the next eight seasons) and duly took their place, as unfancied outsiders, in the following season’s European Cup. McNeill’s goal in the quarter-final against the Yugoslavian champions Vojvodina, another bullet from his head, again secured victory at the last gasp.
In the semi-final against Dukla Prague, with Celtic defending a 3-1 lead from the home leg, the usually buccaneering team played uncharacteristically deep, fighting a dogged rearguard action in which McNeill was immense. It was unpretty but effective, and on May 25 1967, at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, McNeill led his men, all of them born within 20 miles of Parkhead, as they set out to face the might of Internazionale – Inter Milan – the overwhelming favourites.
Inter scored with a disputed penalty after seven minutes and then sat back, relying on their ultra-defensive catenaccio system to snuffle out the Scots upstarts. McNeill said he could have watched the rest of the game from the stand as Celtic launched wave after wave of attacks against the rugged but tiring Italians.
Celtic, fired up by their 20,000 travelling fans, had to score – and they did, twice, the winner coming six minutes before the end. McNeill received the Cup amid scenes of jovial chaos. Celtic won five trophies that season, and McNeill was a legend henceforth.
Celtic’s European Cup triumph saw them play Racing Club of Buenos Aires for the Intercontinental Club Cup, the unofficial world club championship, but following stalemate in the home and away legs, a neutral play-off in what became known as “the Battle of Montevideo” saw the Argentines win by the simple strategy of kicking Celtic off the park.
Almost everyone lost their heads – except McNeill, whose sportsmanship in defeat shocked the Racing defender, Roberto Perfumo, when he humbly shook hands and exchanged shirts on the final whistle. It was, said Perfumo, a “treasured moment” in his career.
William McNeill was born on March 2 1940 at Bellshill, a small town 10 miles from the centre of Glasgow that has produced many fine footballers. He was the only child of a strict father from the Army Physical Training Corps and of a mother whose parents were Lithuanian. His was a Roman Catholic household, but, he insisted, in a mining community prejudice was considered absurd.
He first went to see Celtic when he was eight with his Auntie Grace, who lost her shoe in “The Jungle”, the raucous north stand of Celtic Park. He was educated at Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell. In 1957 McNeill was playing for a junior side, Blantyre Victoria, when Stein spotted him in a Scottish Schoolboys game at Parkhead, and signed him for £250.
He made his full debut in the 1958-59 season but did not sign full-time terms until after his first senior international in 1961 – in which he was one of the few Scots to play well in a 9-3 thrashing by England. He went on to win 29 caps for Scotland.
McNeill made 822 appearances in all competitions for Celtic, winning nine championships and seven Scottish Cups. He retired after the 1975 Cup victory over Airdrie – too early, he later suspected.
After a brief and unprofitable venture into business, McNeill entered management in 1977, first with Clyde and then with Aberdeen.
In 1978 he became manager of Celtic, succeeding Jock Stein. He led The Bhoys to three championships and one Scottish Cup, but relations with the club’s chairman, Desmond White, were strained, and in 1983 he moved to Manchester City, whom he helped to promote to the top division.
In 1986-87, however, he became one of the few managers to take charge of two relegated clubs in the same season, leaving City, who went down at the end of the season, for Aston Villa, who suffered the same fate.
He returned in short order to Celtic, and in 1987-88, the club’s centenary year, he guided them to the league and cup double. But the standard proved unsustainable and in 1991 McNeill was sacked.
From then on he worked as a media pundit, apart from a brief spell as football development manager at Hibernian. McNeill, who was only sent off twice in his career, both times for protecting a team-mate, was appointed MBE in 1974.
In 1999 he was named Glasgow’s Sportsperson of the Millennium, and in 2003, along with his former Rangers rival, Eric Caldow, he stood for the Scottish Senior Citizens Party in the Scottish parliament elections. In 2009 he was given an ambassadorial role at Celtic, and in 2015 a bronze statue of McNeill holding aloft the European Cup was installed outside Celtic Park.
Billy McNeill, who had been suffering from dementia, married Liz Callaghan, a dancer on the BBC’s White Heather Club, in 1963; they had one son and four daughters.
Billy McNeill, born March 2 1940, died April 22 2019