Mike McCurry: ââ?¬Ë?Cheat and philanderer? Nothing could be farther from the truthââ?¬â?¢

[ian1964 10,720]

Mike McCurry is careful with the language he uses � he has to be, being a Baptist minister as well as one of Scotland�s leading football referees � yet he maintains it is still clear what has happened to him since controversies on and off the pitch embroiled him over the past 12 months.

 

The SFA, short of making McCurry a pariah, has put him out to grass, and one of Scottish football�s most high-profile match officials has been forced from the spotlight.

 

McCurry, 43 years old, was a picture of fitness and rude good health when we met at his Mosspark Baptist Church in Glasgow last week. He has the physique and toning of an athlete 20 years his junior and clearly revels in physical, as much as spiritual, health. Yet, as brave as he sounds, he is obviously wounded.

 

The episodes that caused McCurry�s star to wane arrived in three separate instalments. First came the events at Ibrox last May, when McCurry made mistakes during Rangers� 3-1 win over Dundee United, after which Craig Levein, the United manager, savaged him while calling him a cheat.

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Then came McCurry�s alleged affair with a young Sunday School teacher � which he denies � that was spread luridly over the tabloids for days. Then followed a further, ludicrous tabloid tale, in which McCurry was said to have deliberately conducted a popular Rangers supporters� anthem at his church. The last allegation was about as inane as any newspaper report can get.

 

Yet the damage from it all is done.

 

ââ?¬Å?Iââ?¬â?¢ve had a tough time, there is no doubt about it,ââ?¬Â McCurry says. ââ?¬Å?As a ref I am no longer given the high-profile games I once was, though I canââ?¬â?¢t comment on that, you would need to ask the SFA about it.

 

ââ?¬Å?But itââ?¬â?¢s very obvious: if you compare last season with this one, and look at both the high-profile games I did, and the number of live TV games I did, they are both greatly reduced.ââ?¬Â

 

Arguably, the moment that triggered McCurry�s downfall was that hot May afternoon at Ibrox last year. The game was played at a frenzied pace, with Dundee United chasing a European spot, and Levein�s men having a real go at Rangers. Two crucial mistakes � the first to disallow a Danny Swanson goal, then to wave away a blatant United penalty when David Weir tripped Noel Hunt � made McCurry�s day acutely uncomfortable.

 

There was hell to pay for the referee. Television pictures showed that United had been robbed, and Levein, the acid dripping from his lips, accused McCurry of being a cheat and a coward. ââ?¬Å?Mike should just have phoned me up and said, ââ?¬Ë?Look, tell your lads just to stay at home, Rangers are going to be given the points,ââ?¬â?¢Ã¢â?¬Â the United manager said witheringly.

 

McCurry has never lived it down, and while he confesses to his errors, he also clearly feels let down himself. ââ?¬Å?There were two major decisions in that game ââ?¬â? the Noel Hunt penalty incident and the disallowed United goal,ââ?¬Â he says. ââ?¬Å?For the penalty, the ball had taken a deflection which suddenly put me out of position to see it, and one of the first rules of refereeing is, ââ?¬Ë?If you canââ?¬â?¢t see it, you donââ?¬â?¢t give it.ââ?¬â?¢ I just felt there was nothing I could do about it ââ?¬â? you have to play on in that situation.

 

ââ?¬Å?The greater talking point was the goal that I disallowed. It was very complicated, but from where I was, I saw the ball hit Davie Weir and go in. I was 50 yards away but that is what I saw, and I went to signal the goal. Then I got a buzz in my ear-piece, and Stuart McAuley, the assistant referee, had his flag raised for offside. Stuart is a Fifa-ranked assistant referee of many years, and he was adamant that the ball had come off a Dundee United player. That wasnââ?¬â?¢t what I had seen, so I said to Stuart, ââ?¬Ë?Are you sure?ââ?¬â?¢ and he said he was certain.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article5877712.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

[ian1964 10,720]

“The goal should have stood — it looked horrendous later. In 26 years of refereeing, nothing like that had ever happened to me. It was something I really regretted but these things can happen. A referee can always make mistakes and you just hope and pray they don’t have a significant outcome on the game.”

 

That Ibrox afternoon, McCurry says, taught him once and for all that television technology should be introduced to football. “It took us four minutes to sort it all out — wrongly — at Ibrox, yet within 30 seconds of the incident it had been shown twice on television,” he says.

 

“We can put satellites into space and we can transfer a heart from one person to another, but we won’t use technology in football. It doesn’t make any sense. All you would have needed that day and on others like it was a fourth official looking at a monitor. There and then he could have told me, ‘Mike, that goal was good.’ ”

 

As the pressure piled on McCurry, and his comeuppance at the hands of the SFA grew imminent, other nasty aspects caused him fleeting moments of depression. In particular, Levein’s accusation of dishonesty hurt him deeply.

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“Dundee United were threatening to sue me for Ã?£175,000 because they said they couldn’t get into Europe because of my decisions,” he says. “And you say to yourself, if that is where we are moving, we need a sea-change in refereeing.

 

“The implication was not that I had made a bad decision, but that I was a cheat. And since then there have been a number of refereeing decisions which have been called similarly — not poor decisions, but where refs have been called ‘cheats’. It is awful. It is complete nonsense to say that any decision I or any other ref makes is born of a lack of integrity.

 

“I made a big mistake at Ibrox last season and I may still be paying for it. I’ve not refereed a Rangers or Dundee United game since, and that is the best part of a year now.

 

“Maybe the SFA are trying to be kind to me by keeping me out of the spotlight, but I think there is more to it than that. The profile of games I’m doing is certainly much lower.”

 

On top of all this trauma, McCurry has had to endure two other public humiliations: a fatuous Sunday tabloid “sting” in which he was shown to be leading the singing in church to Tina Turner’s The Best, a popular Rangers anthem, then his alleged affair.

 

Both meant further bouts of very public anguish, which may or may not have added to his new, “unclean” status within the SFA.

 

The so-called “singing controversy” was absurd to anyone who has any knowledge of evangelical church life and McCurry, mercifully, saw the funny side of it. “We use a puppet ministry team from England who do parodies of well-known songs. They basically turn well-known pop songs into what I call ‘God songs’,” he explains. “One of the ones they use is the Tina Turner song.

 

“Any church that has a children’s puppet team will use that song in worship. We have loads of kids in our church and they don’t come here to sing Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehova, so we tend to use more contemporary music.

 

“The newspaper story didn’t really bother me — it just depends on how informed people are about church life. I think most people knew it was a lot of nonsense. I actually thought it read more like an April Fool’s in the paper, it was so silly.”

 

McCurry admits that his worst moment of all was the subsequent allegation of an affair with a young woman. He flatly denies the charge and says that he and his wife, Linda, have a rock-solid marriage based upon their shared faith. Yet the Scottish tabloids once again had a field day with him.

 

“I’ve never had an opportunity to give my side of that story, and I can’t, due to pastoral confidentiality,” McCurry says. “To do that, I would have to breach the confidences about the private lives of others, which I can’t do as a Christian minister. However wronged I feel I was, I just have to accept that.

 

“What I will say is that, after it all blew up, I stepped down while my church conducted a full and independent inquiry into it, and once all the facts were known, my congregation voted by over 90 per cent that I should stay in my job.

 

“But as a minister sometimes it is difficult to protect yourself. In pastoral situations you can be in private with someone — both men and women — where, in reality, any kind of story can be made up.

 

“There are a lot of vulnerable people around, and if the church can’t be a safe place for them, then Lord help us all. We all have emotional and spiritual needs, and these days I include myself among them!”

[Gazza_8 233]

Such a good read you posted it twice Ian.

 

I wouldn't deny pumping a young Sunday school teacher, no way!

[Frankie 8,552]

You know you're struggling for support when you need Spiers to stand up for you...

 

Pity he couldn't use other examples of referees getting away with poor decisions and not being hounded like McCurry.

 

Also, strange that he isn't highlighting the sectarian abuse McCurry suffers from Celtic fans as a result of the coverage.

[Frankie 8,552]

Such a good read you posted it twice Ian.

 

I wouldn't deny pumping a young Sunday school teacher, no way!

 

I think it is in two parts mate...

[Frankie 8,552]

Actually moved this into Rangers chat as well.

[ian1964 10,720]

Such a good read you posted it twice Ian.

 

I wouldn't deny pumping a young Sunday school teacher, no way!

 

Two separate pages mate

[Bluedell 5,614]

This suggests that the game is corrupt.

 

The SFA are punishing a referee for giving decisions in Rangers' favour but don't do otherwise for the likes of Eddie Smith, Brines etc who have consistently given decisions, and ultimately last year's SPL title to Celtic.

 

Alternatively the SFA are allowing the Scottish press to dictate which referees are given high profile games.

 

Either way it's a disgrace, and something Gordon Smith should be making a public statement on.

[Gazza_8 233]

I think it is in two parts mate...

 

What a twat I am!

[26th of foot 6,063]

You know you're struggling for support when you need Spiers to stand up for you...

 

Pity he couldn't use other examples of referees getting away with poor decisions and not being hounded like McCurry.

 

Also, strange that he isn't highlighting the sectarian abuse McCurry suffers from Celtic fans as a result of the coverage.

 

Spiers is the son of a Baptist Minister, thus it's probably an eventual connection.

 

As we know, Spiers is reduced to appearing on the downmarket Radio Snyde. The days after the front page revelations of McCurry leading his congregation in singing praiseworthy lyrics to the melody of Simply the Best, saw objective host, Bitter Martin field calls on this off field instance. Keevins was unequivocal in his condemnation of McCurry's actions. He linked it directly to the date of the instance, the week after an old firm fixture which Rangers won, and called it, "an ill-thought out action". Further, Keevins continually referred to singing such a song in church as both, "strange and weird".

 

The coup de gras was delivered by the always odious Terry O'Neil from Uddingston, Bitter allowed him on the phone-in to label McCurry, "the sinister Minister". Religeous tolerence is alive and kicking on Snyde? Well, did Spiers take an opportunity to set Keevins, Bitter, et al straight on matters Divinity?

 

The answer is a resounding 'NO'. The son of the Manse, the graduate in Divinity and Theology from St Andrews, the church organist, the ...................................................... did not want to jeopardise his status as, '****** Baptist', bestowed on him by Keevins.

 

Even on Saturday, Bitter was again reinforcing the legitimacy of Craig Levein's words, saying, "it's my favourite rant of all time". Bitter returns to Levein's actions that day on a most regular basis, it's an obvious comfort blanket to him.