Dundee United manager Craig Levein might seem like a mild mannered, self composed individual during his post-match interviews, but he’s a man not afraid of getting stuck-in when it’s required.
Viewers of Sky One’s “When Sports Stars See Red” will have seen another side of the former Hearts & Leicester boss, from his time as a professional footballer at Tynecastle.
The program shows some of the more extreme moments in world-wide sport, where sportsmen let their tempers get the better of them – including Paulo Di Canio’s shove on referee Paul Alcock in 1998 and more recently Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the final of the 2006 World Cup.
However, at number 12 in the all-time hot-head moments, was a clip from a pre-season friendly between Hearts and Raith Rovers in 1994, where teammates Craig Levein and Graeme Hogg came to blows.
Levein didn’t take too kindly to defender Graeme Hogg’s criticism over him failing to mark a Raith Rovers forward and replied in the most diplomatic, mild mannered way possible???he punched him in the nose.
A brawl broke out, Graeme Hogg collapsed to the ground with a broken nose and had to be stretchered off – both players then received straight red cards for fighting on the pitch.
The SFA went on to fined both Levein and Hogg, and suspended them for a staggering number of matches – 10 games for Hogg, 14 games for Levein.
It was an incident which makes the 2005 Bowyer-Dyer fight look like handbags at dawn, after the two Newcastle players had to be pulled apart when Aston Villa went 3-0 up.
Lee Bowyer’s shirt was ripped during the scuffle and referee Barry Knight sent both players off – but they weren’t treated as harshly as Levein & Hogg were by the SFA, with Bowyer receiving only a 4 game suspension and Kieron Dyer only a 3 match suspension.
The Levein-Hogg incident clearly didn’t affect Levein’s career, as he went on to become Hearts captain and eventually Hearts manager – before a stint as Leceister boss and now as Dundee United manager.
Craig Levein wants to see a battling quality among his current Dundee United team when they are out on the park, but will clearly be hoping they don’t follow his example and come to blows with their own teammates!!!
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Remind me never to get into a argument with Levein!!!
Was Andy McLaren in this hotheads program?
P.S – Don’t get in an arguement with Levein.
My wife and I watched it last night… she’s not a footie fan, so I had to explain to her that actually Levein is quite a nice, intelligent bloke who was a great footballer in his day & one of the country’s most promising managers. She didn’t believe me. 🙂
Get her to watch the highlights of the Rangers v United match next weekend. Even if United get slaughtered by a struggling Rangers side, he probably wont say anything nasty about his players and will be a total gent infront of the camera………just dont mention man-marking Raith Rovers attackers!!!