‘CESAR’ T-SHIRTS SELL OUT TO BOOST CHARITY
ASPECIAL edition T-shirt honouring Billy McNeill and Celtic’s historic European Cup win has sold out in hours, raising thousands for a Glasgow dementia charity.
The ‘Cesar’ tee captures McNeill holding the cup with the line, ‘Where you went others followed’ and the date of the famous 2-1 victory against Inter Milan on May 25, 1967.
The graphic was created by Robert Chambers, who designs official t-shirts for Celtic, to honour McNeill on the day of his funeral in May last year. It was displayed on a huge billboard on London Road as fans gathered to pay their respects.
Robert decided to create a T-shirt with the same imagery and sent one to all the surviving Lions and other former players.
John Clark, Frank McAvennie, John Hartson, Simon Donnelly and Jorge Cadete are among those who have been pictured wearing the shirts on social media.
The Lions agreed to endorse the shirts if all proceeds – after printing costs – were split being Glasgow
charity Battle Against Dementia and MND Scotland.
Both Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers died after being diagnosed with dementia while Rangers legend Fernando Ricksen passed away last year after a long battle with MND.
Robert sold 1000 of the shirts in a few hours as word spread and more will be available to pre-order this weekend.
He said: “I’ve been doing T-shirts for nearly 20 years and I’ve been working with Celtic since they got their three in a row.
“The graphic was created last year as a mark of respect for Billy McNeill on the day of his funeral and then fast forward to now, thought it would be good to do something to commemorate the European Cup win.
“I came up with the idea to send all the Lisbon Lions and ex-Celtic players a T-shirt, helped by Simon Donnelly who helped me with sizes and addresses.
“We were going to launch it on May 25 but John Clark tweeted a picture wearing the shirt on the Friday before and it just went crazy.
“Some of the T-shirts probably haven’t arrived yet for the players who live abroad like Henrik Larsson.”
Dougie McCluskey, of Battle Against Dementia, said: “The response has been phenomenal. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing with people asking how they can get a T-shirt.
“We are hoping something big.”
Battle against Dementia is behind a new dedicated charity fund that will support former footballers affected by dementia.
The Billy McNeill Fund was launched in January this year, endorsed by the players family. The launch event for the charity, a golf day and ball, was due to take place this month at Marr Hall in Bishopton but had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
Organisers hope to hold the event in May or June next year. it’s the start of