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.
