Scottish football journalist Alison McConnell has claimed that Rangers should be looking for compensation after the ‘scandalous’ late decision to allow fans to the Ibrox club’s upcoming match.
The Gers travel to France to play Lyon in the final group game in the Europa League. However, it initially seemed that they would have to make the trip without any of their own fans.
This was because the city of Lyon is staging its traditional Festival of Lights. Rangers were told that this would “test the policing resource and city infrastructure” and so away crowds were not welcome.
Now, though, only 24 hours later, the French government have gone back on that decision and say supporters will be allowed to travel to the game.
With the game to be played on Thursday night, McConnell claimed the sudden twist is ‘scandalous’ and the club have been ‘very poorly treated’.
While speaking on PLZ Soccer, she said: “Scandalous. I think they’ve been very poorly treated. I think if I were in Rangers’ shoes, I would be looking for avenues to get some kind of compensation.
“Because it’s poor, and at this time of year, it’s a lot of money to go and follow your club into Europe, especially when you factor in the additional requirements of PCR tests and safe travel and everything. I think the timescale and the flipping and flopping of decisions is poor.”
TIF Thoughts on Rangers and Lyon…
The ludicrous turn of events would have certainly been a cause of great confusion to any fans who were intending on travelling to the match.
Will Giovanni van Bronckhorst succeed at Rangers?
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As McConnell mentions, with the news suddenly changing at such short notice, it will cost a great deal of money for fans to suddenly organise tickets and travel to the game. This will likely have an impact on the amount of Rangers supporters that will be at the match.
The only slice of good fortune is that there is almost nothing riding on the game. This is because Lyon are already set to top the group, while the Scottish champions are safe in their place as runners-up – as they have a head-to-head advantage over third-placed Sparta Prague.
Had that not been the case, this whole situation could have been met with even more tension.
In other news: ‘He needs to find out’ – Pundit drops claim on Van Bronckhorst issue at Rangers