Celtic hope to pay a poignant tribute to Billy McNeill on Saturday by sending an entire team out to face Kilmarnock wearing his famous No.5 shorts.
Scotland’s champions were grieving yesterday along with the rest of the Scottish game after the Lisbon Lion passed away aged 79 after a long battle against dementia.
Tributes for the club’s former captain and manager have poured in from all over the world over the last 24 hours following the announcement. Team mates Bertie Auld and John Clark held a tearful press conference at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon to lament the loss of their iconic leader.
But now the current squad could be given the chance to pay homage by pulling on the shorts McNeill wore when he conquered Europe in 1967.
Record Sport understands chief executive Peter Lawwell began exploring the possibility yesterday and is now likely to ask the SPFL to grant special permission in time for this weekend’s visit from Steve Clarke’s side.
Celtic paid a similar tribute to Jimmy Johnstone in the League Cup Final of 2006 when Gordon Strachan’s players took to the field wearing Johnstone’s No.7 shorts before going on to wrap up the silverware with a 3-0 win.
That was the first trophy Neil Lennon lifted as the club’s captain and the Northern Irishman will be in the dugout as manager on Saturday when his team go after the three points which would all but secure an eighth successive league title.
