BOBBY Madden announced that he was hanging up his whistle earlier this week after he made the move down south last year.

It’s fair to say that he wasn’t missed by Scottish football, but the standard hadn’t gone up since his departure.

During his time in the SPFL, there were many rumours circulating about the referee, and who he supported. There were even suggestions that he had shares in The Rangers. He’s attempted to set the record straight and admitted doing to Ibrox regularly when growing up.

When asked if he was a fan of the Ibrox side, he gave a long-winded answer where he denied other things levied at him, but he did admit to being a Rangers* fan in the end without saying those exact words.

He said: [BBC]

“This has been banded about for years and I can speak openly.

“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, maybe.

“And through ill health, I stopped going. My brother then was a St Mirren but at that point at 12/13/14 I started running.”

He was the man in the middle for many Glasgow Derbies and made many wrong calls which were frankly embarrassing. He once denied Celtic a last-minute penalty at Celtic Park when Clint Hill wrapped his legs around Leigh Griffiths who was through on goal and brought him to the ground.

One of Madden’s last games was Celtic’s 2-1 defeat in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup last season. He was atrocious that day, leading to Madden receiving a lot of criticism online, with Chris Sutton Tweeting:

Celtic were poor but Bobby Madden turned in one of the worst refereeing performances I’ve seen in Scotland for a long time… and that’s saying something!!!

— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) April 17, 2022