A PROFESSIONAL footballer bidding to become a taxi firm director has been accused of threatening to "slit the throat" of a police officer.

Queen of the South striker Derek Lyle, 35, was granted a licence to run his mother's single-cab taxi firm despite objections from Police Scotland who raised concerns about is character.

Police Scotland cited previous convictions and a forthcoming court case involving allegations of assaulting or impeding police.

One of the allegations centre on a incident at a pub owned by the footballer where Mr Lyle's father was hospitalised following an attack reportedly carried out by members of a notorious crime clan.

Mr Lyle is alleged to threatened one officer who attempted to ascertain his identity saying "you're getting it" and that he would cut his face off and slit his throat.

He is also alleged to have called the same officer a "wee bovril" during the incident in April this year at the Campsie Bar in Auchinairn, near Glasgow.

A report was sent to the procurator fiscal on April 5 but no trial date has as yet been set.

Councillors in Glasgow rejected the police intervention and gave the 35-year-old striker the green light to join the taxi firm.

Police Scotland also provided details of a incident in Dumfries where Mr Lyle threatened officers after being removed from a nightclub in the town.

The licensing committee heard how the player was forcibly removed from the venue and made threats to stewards.

The complaint also detailed how when taken to a police station in the town, Mr Lyle made more threats and while being searched told officers he would "knock their heads off".

Speaking at the council hearing, Mr Lyle said: "The Dumfries incident, I'd been thrown out by the bouncers.

"They were very heavy handed. I've admitted to that."

He added that in last month's incident outside the Campsie Bar he had been drinking following a funeral before being woken in his bed and told of the attack on his father.

Questioned on whether he had the correct temperament to run a business, Mr Lyle said the police complaints were both one-off incidents.

Councillor Pauline McKeever asked him to clarity his intentions with the firm of which he was seeking directorship.

Mr Lyle said: "Nothing really. Just to be a director. Hopefully expand the company in the future."

Committee chairman Frank Docherty said that he could "understand the emotion involved if that was my father" before adding that all the police allegations had been of a verbal and not physical nature.

He added that this was a "young man who had been drunk and whose dad had been physically attacked".

Councillor Docherty also explained that it was common for single cabs to be owned by multiple people and licensed by members of the same family.

Vice chair Gilbert Davidson told the hearing of his own past a professional footballer.

Derek Lyle is a director of Derek Lyle Ltd and is described in official documents as a publican.

He signed for Queen of the South in 2012 and has scored 45 goals in 125 games for the Dumfries club.

He has also enjoyed stints at Partick Thistle, Dundee and Hamilton Academical.