Millions pay tribute to Bestie

Tributes continue to pour in today to one of Britain's greatest boozers, George Best, after his sudden and untimely death from long-term alcohol poisoning.

Best, 59, was widely regarded as the outstanding drinker of his generation after he was plucked from the back streets of Belfast to star in the pubs and nightclubs of London and Manchester. But team-mates said he could have scaled even greater heights if he had managed to overcome his terrible and debilitating addiction to football.

"At the height of his powers he was in a league of his own," said tearful team-mate Bobby "Five Bellies" Charlton on learning of the news. "There was a spell between 1968-70 when nobody could touch him. But the tragedy is that the football just kept getting in the way.

"People didn't realise just how often he'd skip a drinking session in order to play a match. I don't think we'll ever know just how much he might have achieved at the bar if he'd managed to keep the ball-playing under control," added Charlton.

Fellow tippler Frank "Macallan" McAvennie agreed. "Pele, Cruyff, Socrates, Maradona, Gascoigne, Freddie Flintoff — Best could have taken them all on single-handed," he said, wiping away a tear. "And he'd still have managed to find his way home unassisted."

Best was repeatedly warned by doctors that he risked shortening his drinking career if he continued to play football, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. "He would sometimes go without a drink for days in order to get a game," lamented top-earning liver surgeon Dr John Daley. "But there was just no stopping him. Towards the end he was so desparate he even turned out for Hibernian and Bournemouth."

For Best's closest friends, there was at least one crumb of comfort amid the deluge of grief. "I'm glad he lived to see the dawn of 24-hour drinking, something he did so much to pioneer," said Charlton. "It's the best compliment we could have paid him."

Best's many friends in his native Northern Ireland last night endorsed this sentiment as they downed a few pints in the local lad's memory, writes Janus Motsonius.

Amid tearful scenes of all-night drunkenness, the president of the Irish FA suggested that a fitting tribute to Best would be a memorial match between England and an all-Ireland squad comprising a inter-denominational mix of Sinn Fein and DUP — including Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams — and fans' favourites the Corrs. Reports that the Pope has agreed to keep goal are unconfirmed, although Roy Keane has voiced his willingness to appear on the condition that "Bono keeps his fuc*king mouth shut about team tactics and sticks to bringing out the oranges at half time".

Best's liver, meanwhile, last night slammed the UK's health system for what it described as "typical Blair-ite NHS incompetence", writes Peter Brooksbank.

Gone is the heady optimism of the July 2002 transplant — shortly after which Bestie's new organ declared: "Hopefully this is going to give me a new lease of life. I feel like I'm home." — to be replaced with anger and dismay.

The liver testerday evaded security at London's Cromwell Hospital to deliver a few angry words to the press. "This is getting beyond a joke," it said. "What kind of National Health Service teams me up with a body worse than the one I left? I'll tell you this now, all the headlines are about legendary footballer this, playboy scallywag that. No-one ever stops to think about the true victims of premature death — the internal organs."

Asked if it would be transplanted again if given the chance, the liver replied: "Forget it mate. I'm through with this rubbish." It was shortly thereafter recaptured by security guards and dragged protesting to the embalming room.

Previously

• So, George, where did it all go wrong?
• George Best's liver: Exclusive interview
• Fans salute George Best's return to match fitness