Lisbon Lion John Clark - from when football was about more than money

The Herald Scotland

6 hours ago

Mr Clark's death and the memories it evokes from that era also recall a period when Scotland could reasonably lay claim to being one of the top five leagues in world football for the quality of its players and their success in European competition.
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While Celtic were becoming the first British club to win the European Champions Cup, their great city rivals, Rangers were being narrowly defeated by Bayern Munich in the final of the European Cup Winners Cup. Bayern would provide the nucleus of the mighty West Germany squad who would win the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974. Until 2018 when Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid lifted Europe's two main trophies, Glasgow in 1967 had come closest.
In an 18-year period until 1974, Rangers also contested the first-ever European Cup Winners Cup; Dunfermline would reach the semi-finals of the old Fairs Cup (forerunner of the Europa League) and both Hibs and Dundee would reach the last four of the European Cup. Rangers would eventually lift the Cup Winners Cup in 1972 while Celtic would reach another European Cup final and four European semi-finals.
Mr Clark's death has occurred while 32 cub sides are currently competing for the newly-expanded World Club Cup in the US. This sprawling, swollen excuse for a competition exists solely to squeeze every last ounce of earning potential from groups of young men who seem to exist these days for little more than the opportunities their televised appearances provide for corporate predators. No matter that the demands on their skills have been bled dry in a football season when a third European club competition has been added and when they're expected to make inter-continental dashes between weekends for the expanded international programme.
In return for becoming very rich, these young working-class men are expected to be slaves to global capitalism in which their God-given skills will be exposed to a higher risk of serious injury or premature burn-out. Once, the best players in the world such as Josef Masopust, Lev Yashin, Alfredo di Stefano, Eusebio, and Franz Beckenbauer – all former Ballon d'Or winners – could be playing at the pinnacle of their careers well into their 30s. If we keep demanding that brilliant young players like Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe and Warren Zaire-Emery perform at this level of intensity so often then it's doubtful we'll be seeing them much beyond their late 20s.
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And I'm not having any nonsense about the shed-loads of money we give them by way of compensation. The FIFA executives and their global sponsors will earn much more money over a longer period and with no discernible skill, long after these young men get discarded.
The legend of John Clark and his fellow Lisbon Lions is known wherever the game is played, but it can never be re-told too often: that 11 modestly-paid, young working-class men born within a few miles of each other in the West of Scotland came together to dominate the richest and most powerful sporting franchises on the planet. It will never be done again, and more's the pity.
In their era, local football clubs represented communities often hard-pressed by economic disadvantage. Quite literally, they gave entire towns and villages a reason to feel good about themselves. Celtic provided hope and a sense of identity to people whom the British state wanted to deprive of their faith, dignity and nationhood.
As a Celtic supporter, I'm still smarting from our defeat by Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final. But my God: look at what it meant to the entire population of that city. The waves of joy caused by Aberdeen's triumph haven't yet receded and won't for a while yet. The game retains its power to lift a community.
And yet, despite the annexation of top-level football by Big Business, it remains mainly a working-class sport. By that I mean that it's one of the few areas of human endeavour where young working-class people can improve their lives and that of their families and their communities. However, it's being menaced by the forces of capitalism to an extent never previously seen. And ironically, it exposes all the weaknesses and errors of that dehumanising system.
The most ruthless proponents of the free market claim to thrive on fair competition. In truth though, they despise the very notion of it. They will use all means necessary: political influence, birth, money (no matter how dishonestly acquired) and violence to retain power and wealth in the hands of as few people as possible. Fair and free competition would threaten their hegemony.
In European football, capitalism has destroyed the Champions League. Only a few clubs from five countries can ever hope to win this now. The element of risk and hard work bringing its own rewards have been lost. Several clubs, including the current Champions League winners, Paris Saint-Germain and the 2023 winners, Manchester City, are owned by brutal regimes which suppress basic human rights. Chelsea, who won it in 2021, did so with money stolen from the Russian people following the fall of communism.
I only met John Clark a few times, but I formed an impression of him. That he was a humble man who wore his great achievements lightly. And that the pride he derived from being a Lisbon Lion was rooted in how much he knew it meant to others less fortunate than he. God rest John Clark.
Kevin McKenna is a Herald writer and columnist. He is Features Writer of the Year and writes regularly about the working-class people and communities of Scotland.