The tough life of a Scottish ref

By Steven Duff

Referees are under pressure to produce results

I was up early and was expecting the letter to arrive.

It was during the 2002 World Cup and I was sitting watching the early kick off between France and Senegal when the postman arrived.

"At a meeting of the SFA Referees Committee it was decided you should be classified as a Category One referee for season 2002/2003."

I'd done it. At the age of 26, I was the youngest official on Scotland's elite list of referees.

The next four seasons were spent as fourth official in the SPL and refereeing in the First, Second and Third divisions.

There were high points and low points.

My second season was a particular struggle - I just couldn't seem to get much right.

But eventually things started to get a bit more comfortable.

I was appointed as fourth official to two under 21 internationals in Tel Aviv and Sarajevo. The SFA also sent me to the Dallas Cup in Texas to take part in US Soccer's refereeing academy.

I was also appointed as referee to the North Qualifying Cup final.

I ended season 2005/06 slightly disappointed I hadn't made the breakthrough into refereeing the SPL.

I had no idea that that was the last thing on the mind of my bosses at the SFA.

I'd just finished reading the local lunchtime news bulletin here in Aberdeen.

I got back to my desk and a colleague had written on a bit of paper: PHONE SANDY ROY.

Sandy Roy is the highly respected SFA Association Manager for Aberdeen referees and we spoke regularly about various things.

Mike McCurry had a tough day at Ibrox on Saturday

As well as being a category one referee I was also in charge of running courses in Aberdeen for new referees.

"Steven, I'm sorry, there's three casualties from category one and you are one of them."

A brief conversation followed and Sandy offered to meet me at his office later in the day to talk things over.

The conversation ended with him saying, apologetically: "The SFA need to know today or tomorrow if you'll accept reclassification to category 3 or if you'll be resigning."

That was how my career as a top level referee came to an end.

I've got over the initial annoyance, and to be frank, bitterness I felt. But the system does still irk me.

I later found out that in my last season I'd finished 33rd in the league table of the 38 category one referees.

I had done 16 games under supervision from SFA appointed observers. 14 of those games had been classed as straightforward.

That means that I really couldn't get a mark much higher than 75 out of 100.

I was on the same league table as the likes of Kenny Clark and Hugh Dallas who were refereeing Old Firm games and because of the degree of difficulty, were getting marks in the 80s and 90s.

The SFA's Referee Committee will meet this week to decide who is up and who is down for next season. There will be more casualties like me. But one of them won't be Mike McCurry.

How could my average ever match that?

At no point in my final season did anyone come to me and say: "Steven there's a potential problem."

In fact in one of my last games - Dundee v Brechin - a senior observer told me: "Good stuff Steven. No problem. Keep it up."

Just weeks later he was involved in the decision to demote me.

The SFA's Referee Committee will meet this week to decide who is up and who is down for next season. There will be more casualties like me.

But one of them won't be Mike McCurry.

Publicly demoting or disciplining referees who make mistakes is not the answer.

It may calm the blood pressure of angry managers in the short term, but it would damage the authority and credibility of our match officials in the long term. And that is important.

It's not easy to produce referees of the quality of Mike McCurry. It takes a lot of time and effort.

The experience and knowledge he has doesn't grow on trees. As referees we all accept that we'll make mistakes.

The higher you go the bigger the consequence of those mistakes. The best referees make fewer mistakes.

Although, yes, Mike might in hindsight have done things differently on Saturday, we still need people like him refereeing in the top league in Scotland.

Steven Duff is a BBC Journalist and a former Category One Referee in Scotland.