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How did our referees cope when Gazza and Ally McCoist were playing?

Date: 4th March 2024

This is another of my wee blogs about referees, using stories from Alastair Blair’s book about the history of Scottish refereeing.  As you’ll have probably seen, the SFSA is running a year-long campaign to encourage our 80,000 members (and any other fans) to become a referee. When you read some of the stories that Alastair collated from referees the length and breadth of the country, you discover just how difficult it can be for our officials to keep a straight face when they are faced with the antics of some of our greatest players.  For example, Kenny Clark, one of our better referees of the past, recalled the problems posed by Paul Gascoigne and Ally McCoist…

“I remember a Cup tie at Clyde when Gazza was moaning about the ball, telling me it was like a pub ball.  I thought, let’s have some sensible man-management here and I’ll get a new ball at the first available opportunity.  When this came, I took the ball, gave it to Stuart McCall and said, ‘put it off please.’  Stuart kicked it like an arrow, some 60 yards to the stand touchline. ‘See,’ said Gazza, ‘I told you that ball was ****ed, he can’t normally kick it ten yards straight.’”

Another huge personality of that time (who still fits that description today) was Ally McCoist.  Everyone assumes that Ally is a permanently happy-chappie, but one of the reasons he has been so successful is that he has a phenomenal will-to-win.  Kenny was refereeing a testimonial match for John Lambie at Firhill, between Old Firm legends and Thistle legends.  With a few minutes to go and the Thistle legends losing, Lambie put a few extra players on the park, without taking any others off.  Then the Thistle legends got an equaliser.  “There may have been a hand-ball,” Kenny said, “but given it was a friendly testimonial I didn’t see it. The next thing I know is that McCoist is chasing me back to the halfway line, protesting about the goal. That’s how focused he is on winning.  I told him that if I sent him off, he wouldn’t be able to sit in the dug-out the next Saturday so he calmed down. He was the Rangers assistant manager at that time and that next Saturday was the Old Firm game…which I was going to referee.”

Keep an eye out for more stories from Alastair’s book.  And, more to the point, watch our Facebook page, where we share posts from all 12 of the Regional Referees’ Associations and where you’ll learn more about what it takes to be a referee.  Yes, they get abuse (and we, the fans, are the source of that abuse – which is fine when it’s not over the top, as it sadly is too often), but without them we don’t have a game. As I always say in these blogs, we have a shortage of referees in this country at the moment, so I’m sure that Crawford Allan, the SFA referees’ supremo, and Ian Maxwell, the SFA CEO, will welcome any of our members who want to take up the challenge of becoming a match official.

Stuart Murphy,

CEO, SFSA 


Posted in: Latest News, Refereeing