| George Cumming |
 George Dollar Cumming was born sometime between 22nd September, 1946 and 31st December, 1946, in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. * The 5' 10 (11st 6lbs) midfielder signed for Willie Thornton's Thistle circa Saturday, 6th February, 1965, having most recently been with Motherwell Bridge Works. Aged 19, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 30th April, 1966, in a 3-0 win at home to Falkirk in the SFL First Division. There were no goals for George during his time with Thistle. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 29th March, 1969, in a 2-0 defeat away to Dunfermline Athletic in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 51 occasions. George's club-list included Motherwell Bridge Works, Partick Thistle, St Mirren and Hamilton Academical.
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 George was an amateur and enjoyed recognition as such gaining 7 Scottish Amateur international caps and playing for the British Olympic Association team on 4 occasions. All the more impressive considering that most international selections were dominated by Queen’s Park players at the time. He later went into refereeing and became the SFA’s director of referee development. In an article for FIFA.com in June 2020, George outlined his route into refereeing, and issues that arose from his success as a ref. he said that he was “drifting out of the game. I saw there was a referee class taking place, and I wanted something to keep myself fit, so I went along, passed the exam and I started refereeing in my local amateur league.” George went on to referee in the SPL. He goes on to say that he was a deputy head teacher, and had been teaching for 20 years, so he had a difficult decision to make when offered the newly created post of SFA Referee Training Officer. Ten years after taking up the post, he was offered the post of FIFA Head of Refereeing and took charge of the referees at the 2020 World Cup. He spent time in Kuala Lumpar as acting Director of FIFA’s Development Division. After retiring from the game George enjoyed golf as a hobby, but he volunteered for the charity Sporting Memories, a charity that helps people with dementia, depression and loneliness. Of a visit to Hampden he said “I just look to try different things participants will enjoy… I took my group up to Hampden, for example, and that was a great day. We had a tour of the stadium, which was smashing, and then got taken round the museum. They loved it.” It goes to show that you can take people out of the game, but not the game out of people! |
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