As he was unveiled as the new Scotland manager at Hampden tonight it’s hard to forget the most dramatic time of Craig Levein’s management career.
May 10, 2008, just over 18 months ago, was the day that the then Dundee United managed exploded in rage with a number of his new colleagues in the firing line.
An abysmal display by former referee Mike McCurry was the source of Levein’s anger as Dundee United’s UEFA Cup hopes took a savage blow, whilst Rangers prepared for the UEFA Cup final and an unprecedented quadruple.
After watching his side denied a clear penalty and have a perfectly good own goal disallowed for reasons known only to the officials Levein couldn’t contain his anger as he was interviewed afterwards.
About Mc Curry at the penalty incident the new Scotland manager said said: “We had a blatant penalty and he bottled it.
“If it’s not a level playing field and, if we don’t get the decisions, blatant, important decisions then what is the point of turning up?”
“I thought Mike McCurry had the balls to stand up and give these decisions. Not only is it a penalty kick, but it’s a sending off for Davie Weir. But he didn’t want to do it because this game meant so much to Rangers.”
Levein continued: “Anybody who is of a fair mind watching that today would see that we had no chance of winning that.
“We get a perfectly good goal chalked off and a blatant penalty, with not even a decision to make, and it should’ve been a sending off.”
The SFA were quick to defend McCurry against Levein’s allegations but he was never allowed to referee another Rangers match before retiring early because he was being overlooked for high profile matches.
Levein picked up a £5,000 fine for his outburst but would have had to pay much more than that for the publicity that his comments generated.
Tomorrow he’ll be rubbing shoulders with many of the committee men that his comments upset.
The controversy rumbled on throughout the summer with SFA President George Peat claiming that Levein’s comments were criminal, United were far from happy with this since Peat would be part of the committee that judged the ‘offence’.
BBC match report including Levein interview.
Levein fined £5,000 but not apologising
Dundee United statement on George Peat
