Bobby Madden has railed against suggestions he is a Rangers supporter as the curtain comes down on his refereeing career.
The whistler had Ibrox and St Mirren influences in his family but his running career which eventually turned to a man in the middle job was his sole focus in his youth. Madden has retired from refereeing after a season in the English Football League, but he claims to have been hit with allegation of being a Rangers supporter during his time in Scottish football, where he officiated many of the game's biggest matches in the Premiership and beyond on European duties too.
And he insists to BBC Scotland it's all nonsense. He said: "This has been bandied about for years and I can speak openly now, and I think anyone who knows me will know. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was a massive Rangers fan and took me to Ibrox until I was about 12 or 13. And through ill-health stopped going.
"My brother was a St Mirren fan. But at that point of 12, 13, 14, I started running, I became a junior international, so I really took a limited interest in football at that stage. When I didn't have a race, I would go to Love Street as it was called at the time.
"I would go there with my brother who had a season ticket. So no, you hear the rumours, I'm a mason, a shareholder, I ran a supporters bus.
"It's very easy to create a rumour now and if someone says I used to work with him, it gives a degree of credibility and they can put anything on that.
"I worked in a distribution centre for 12 years. They knew I was a runner, on spare weekends I went to Love Street. I actually sat beside some people who worked with us I knew, people will always try to find a way to criticise and cast aspersions
"So I did go when I was younger with my grandfather but I was never a season ticket holder or any of these other things."
