Let’s honour the Lions while we still can
TOMMY GEMMELL had no need for a medal from the Queen to feel like footballing royalty. He was already part of an exclusive British club. One of only two footballers from these isles — Liverpool’s Phil Neal was the other — to score in two European Cup Finals. Bobby Charlton scaled great heights. But he didn’t do that. Neither, for that matter, did Trevor Brooking. Yet both English legends were made Knights of the Realm. The late Jock Stein was overlooked for a knighthood after his players were involved in a violent clash with Racing Club of Argentina in the World Club Championship. The first British footballer to lift the European Cup, Billy McNeill has been honoured with a statue on Celtic Way. But his recognition from the British establishment, like his old team-mate Bobby Lennox, reaches no higher than an MBE. Brendan Rodgers, then, makes a valid point. Many Celtic supporters regard the British honours system as anachronistic nonsense. Yet, as the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions approaches, there is a unique opportunity to right some historic wrongs. The feeling that Scottish football has been shortchanged by the honours system is difficult to shift. On the Government website, it explains that knighthoods are awarded for ‘a major contribution in any activity, usually at national level. Other people working in the nominee’s area will see their contribution as inspirational and significant, requiring commitment over a long period of time’. Stein’s Lions were not only the first British winners of Europe’s premier trophy. Every one of them was drawn from within a 30-mile radius of Glasgow. If that’s not inspirational and significant, then what is? It’s hard to see what more Stein, McNeill, Johnstone, Lennox or Gemmell might have done to earn a knighthood. No one begrudged Sir Stanley Matthews or Sir Bobby Charlton their titles. Neither can the worth of Scotland’s two Knights of the Realm, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson, be disputed. Others are a little harder to rationalise. That Sir Dave Richards earned a ‘K’ ahead of the Lisbon Lions for being chairman of the English Premier League is breathtaking. The system which rates a football administrator higher than Stein and his heroes may not be worth much. But a dwindling band of Lisbon Lions are still with us. Why not honour them? While we still can.