Levein fined £5,000 after Ibrox outburst

Levein claimed the referee "bottled" several major decisions during his side's 3-1 Clydesdale Bank Premier League defeat by Rangers in May.

The United manager learned of his punishment at Hampden yesterday after the SFA's general purposes committee found him guilty of "bringing the game into disrepute" and "criticising the performance of match officials in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence".

United last night revealed their manager would speak to chairman Eddie Thompson and his legal advisor before deciding whether he should appeal.

But the former Scotland defender had no regrets. "I said what I honestly felt at the time. It was a poor performance and I'm still angry about it," Levein said.

"I wasn't going to go in and apologise for anything I said."

Levein also stuck by his remarks when he appeared on BBC2 as a studio pundit last night for Rangers' Champions League qualifying tie against Kaunas, although he admitted he had received a "fair hearing".

The matter was reported to the SFA in May after Levein hit out when United were denied a strong penalty claim and had a goal disallowed at Ibrox.

The former Hearts and Leicester City manager argued that David Weir should have been sent off for a foul on Noel Hunt in the penalty box.

And he was disbelieving when a flag ruled out Swanson's long-range effort, despite the fact the ball deflected in off Weir and not the United player in an offside position.

He told reporters after the game: "Mike could have phoned me this morning and said: 'Look, Rangers are going to get the three points today – just tell your lads to stay in the house.'

"It's impossible to win here (at Ibrox] in important games. The referee has bottled it at the penalty. He knew, if he had given the penalty, he would have had to send Davie Weir off.

"That guy today knew it was a penalty kick but knew the game was so important to Rangers that he couldn't give it. It's Rangers, at Ibrox, so you can't win."

In an interview with BBC he added: "We had a blatant penalty and he bottled it.

"If it's not a level playing field and, if we don't get the decisions, blatant, important decisions then what is the point of turning up?

"I thought Mike McCurry had the balls to stand up and give these decisions.

"We get a perfectly good goal chalked off and a blatant penalty, with not even a decision to make, and it should have been a sending-off."

The match came just over a month after United were denied another strong penalty appeal while they were beating Rangers in the CIS Insurance Cup final at Hampden Park, a game they lost on penalties.

Levein said: "The last important game was the cup final and we got cheated in that as well."

McCurry later used the SFA's Whistleblower section of the official website to admit that both decisions were wrong, but even that online admission failed to stop a row blowing up between the association and United.

United made an official complaint over McCurry's performance while SFA chief executive Gordon Smith branded Levein's criticism "extremely unfair".

The club then threatened to take legal action after SFA president George Peat described Levein's comments as "criminal" ahead of the committee's decision on whether he should face charges.

It is not the first time Levein and the SFA have crossed swords over discipline.

In 2003, the SFA tried and failed imposed a four-month touchline ban on the then Hearts head coach after Levein repeatedly refused to pay a fine handed down in July for comments he made about referee Dougie McDonald following a defeat at Kilmarnock, again in May.

Hearts players Andy Webster and Austin McCann had been sent off during a stormy fixture and Levein claimed afterwards that he had lost count of the number of mistakes made by McDonald "after the 97th".

Levein was first fined 1,000, but it was doubled twice by the SFA as a result of his non-payment.

Levein took his case to the Court of Session before agreement was eventually reached with Levein apologising for his criticism of McDonald, the Tynecastle club paying the 1,000 fine and the SFA "clarifying protocols" to be followed in such instances.