Craig Alexander ThomsonMBE (born 20 June 1972[1]) is a Scottish former football referee, who was a match official between 1988 and 2019.[2] Thomson originates from Paisley, Renfrewshire.[3]
On 12 October 2010, Thomson abandoned the Italy–SerbiaEuro 2012 qualification match after seven minutes of play due to crowd disorder.[11] Italy was later awarded a 3–0 victory by UEFA for the forfeit.[11] The following month, Real Madrid players Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso appeared to deliberately incur second yellow cards from Thomson in a UEFA Champions League match, thereby serving a suspension in a dead rubber match.[12] Then Real Madrid coach José Mourinho denied that the players had sought to be sent-off.[13]
In the 2011 Scottish League Cup final between Celtic and Rangers, Thomson awarded Rangers a penalty, but then changed his decision.[14] In the final Old Firm match of the 2010–11 season, Thomson awarded Celtic a penalty with seven minutes remaining, which was saved by Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor.[15]
Thomson was appointed for the 2012 Scottish Cup final, which was won 5–1 by Hearts against their Edinburgh derby rivals Hibernian.[17] During the match, Thomson failed to send off Hearts midfielder Ian Black for elbowing Hibs striker Leigh Griffiths and also awarded a penalty to Hearts for a foul which television replays showed had taken place outside the box.[18]
In March 2013, Thomson refereed a Champions League quarter-final match between Borussia Dortmund and Málaga, which Dortmund won with two late goals.[21]Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan spoke in defence of Thomson, saying that he had performed well to earn the high-profile appointment and that the problems in the Borussia Dortmund–Málaga match had been due to his assistants.[22] Thomson hoped to be selected for the 2014 World Cup final stages,[23] but FIFA omitted him from their list of 14 officials for the tournament.[24]
^ abDate Thomson first took up refereeing, also matches or appointments in more detail: the Scottish Football Association website. Retrieved on 16 June 2007.