PHP: Date larger than current date

Try converting them both to timestamps first, and then compare two converted value:

$curdate=strtotime('22-02-2011');
$mydate=strtotime('10-10-2011');

if($curdate > $mydate)
{
    echo '<span class="status expired">Expired</span>';
}

This converts them to the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, so your comparison should work.

The problem is that your current variables are strings, and not time variables.

Try this out:

$curdate = strtotime('22-02-2011');

$mydate = strtotime('10-10-2011');  

$row_date = strtotime($the_date);
$today = strtotime(date('Y-m-d'));

if($row_date >= $today){
     -----
}