André Billy (13 May 1877 – 9 August 1913) was a French footballer and sports leader, who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of Olympique Lillois, being one of its founders in 1902, and then serving the club as its first captain from 1902 to 1903 and later as president from 1907 to 1911.

[1] A tireless worker with a clear-sighted intelligence, he knew how to immediately give a vigorous boost to the grain brokerage business that he had created, and once he became rich and reached a comfortable situation, Billy began devoting all his leisure time to sport.

[1] At the turn of the century, Billy had become the director of the Compagnie Française de Stérilisation des Flours in Lille, and an advisor to foreign trade in France.

[10][9][13] In his first game in charge, a friendly match against Belgium in April 1906, Billy only debuted one player from the North, his former teammate Schubart, but France lost 0–5,[9] so in the next match, against the powerful England Amateurs, he debuted four players, three of which from the North, including the RC Roubaix strikers Émile Sartorius and André François, and Olympique Lillois goalkeeper Baton, who conceded a record-breaking 15 goals, a record that still stands.

[10][9] Ahead of his debut against Belgium, Billy asked for help from Espir and the journalist Ernest Weber, the correspondent for the French newspaper L'Auto (the forerunner of L'Équipe), since both had been very present in France's locker room since the beginning, and had thus watched the previous two Franco-Belgian meetings.

[6][21] On that same day, UIAFA organized its first-ever international match in Colombes, between England AFA and France, which was selected by Billy, who once again chose Baton as its goalkeeper, who again conceded several goals on his debut in an eventual 0–8 loss.

[13] In order to achieve a little personal revenge, Billy weakened UIAFA's France by refusing to allow OL's footballers to play for them (Bacrot, Eloy, Montagne), on the pretext that, "intoxicated" by their selection, they had not given their best in the championship.

[2] On 19 February 1911, Billy and Jooris witnessed OL win the first title of its history, the USFSA Northern Championship, following a 3–0 victory over RC Roubaix, thus finally putting an end to the invincibility of Roubaix and US Tourquennoise,[23] but despite the club's success, he lost the loyalty of OL's board of directors to Jooris, who was named the club's new secretary-general, a position until then occupied by Billy's friend and former teammate, Louis Schubart.

[3] The local press stated that he had been fighting tuberculosis for eighteen months, but "surely he had in himself that faith, sometimes exaggerated, that he also had in his sporting work and which cost him irremediable errors".

[1] Throughout his sporting career, the will and energy that had helped Billy in his professional and business affairs began to gradually become exasperated into an intransigence that did not admit contradiction, which earned him several real "headbutts" that often led to his resignations, first from the USFSA in 1909, and then from OL in 1911.

[1] Due to the excessive authority that he carried with him everywhere, Billy was nicknamed l'Empereur ("the Imperial"),[1] or even the "Napoleon of football",[9] and indeed, he fought many "battles", and afterwards, he would gather "his" men in front of countless beers and, like a general, would criticize them.