page_title: Billy Bremner
section_title: International career
hierarchical_section_title: Billy Bremner / International career
caption_attribution_description: English: Billy Bremner and Johan Cruyff in 1971.
context_page_description: William John Bremner was a Scottish professional footballer and manager known for his strength, skills and compact constitution. A midfielder, he played for Leeds United from 1959 to 1976, and captained the side during this time, which was the most successful period of the club's history.
  At Leeds, he won the First Division, Second Division, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, FA Cup, League Cup, and Charity Shield. The club also finished second in numerous competitions, being runners-up five times in the English league and seven times in cup finals, including the 1975 European Cup. He was also named as the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1970 and was listed on the PFA Team of the Year in 1973–74. He has since been voted Leeds United's greatest player of all time and has a statue outside the south-east corner of their Elland Road stadium. He has also been included in the Football League 100 Legends and is a member of both the English Football Hall of Fame and Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
  He spent the period from 1976 to 1978 at Hull City, before being appointed player-manager at Doncaster Rovers in November 1978.
context_section_description: Bremner was well established in the Scotland set-up, playing in a trial match against the Scottish Football League XI and winning four under-23 caps, before he made his senior debut for Scotland in May 1965, in a 0–0 draw with Spain at Hampden Park. He went on to feature in qualifying games for the 1966 FIFA World Cup, but defeats to Poland and Italy left Scotland second in their group, which was not enough to qualify. He also played in friendlies against Brazil and Portugal, and received a black eye from Pelé's elbow in a clash during a high ball; despite this being an accident it still demonstrated to Bremner how he had failed to intimidate Pelé as he had done to many other great players of the day.
  The England–Scotland football rivalry was intense throughout his playing career, and so great media attention came upon Bremner and the rest of the Scottish players after they beat world champions England 3–2 at Wembley to become the "unofficial world champions" on 15 April 1967. Many teammates said that Bremner held this match as one of the proudest moments of his career.
  Placed in a tough group for qualification to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Scotland failed to qualify after finishing in second place. Bremner captained his country throughout the process, having first taken up the armband in a friendly defeat by Denmark in Copenhagen. He scored his first international goal in a 2–1 qualifying victory over Austria at Hampden Park, his first game as captain. This game was followed by two victories over Cyprus and a 1–1 draw with West Germany, however a 3–2 defeat by West Germany in Hamburg ended their hopes of making it to the World Cup. Bremner's second international goal came in a 3–2 win over Wales in a British Home Championship game at the Racecourse Ground.
  Scotland were the only home nation to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup after finishing ahead of Czechoslovakia and Denmark in their group. However, Bremner was nearly not selected by manager Willie Ormond after Ormond found him drunk in a bar not long after Jimmy Johnstone had to be rescued by the coastguard having gotten stranded in a rowing boat during a night out following a home international match against Northern Ireland. Having been selected, Bremner captained Scotland to a 2–0 win over Zaire at the Westfalenstadion. He was later accused by Zairian player Ndaye Mulamba of racially abusing him during this match, as well as spitting at Mulamba and Mana Mamuwene. A highly creditable 0–0 draw against world champions Brazil left Scotland with high hopes of qualifying to the second round. Yet a 1–1 draw with Yugoslavia sent Scotland out of the competition unbeaten due to Brazil and Yugoslavia finishing level on points but with superior goal difference.
  Bremner's last cap came against Denmark on 3 September 1975. An incident in Copenhagen after the game where several players were ejected from a nightclub for an alleged fight led to a lifetime ban from international football by the Scottish Football Association; four other players, Willie Young, Joe Harper, Pat McCluskey and Arthur Graham also were banned for life (Graham and Harper later had their bans overturned). Bremner maintained his innocence, stating that the incident had been blown out of proportion by the SFA.
caption: Bremner and Johan Cruyff in 1971
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