Rangers have concocted an excuse to create an advantage

It shouldn’t really surprise anyone that the toys have once again being thrown out of the pram by the second Rangers, this time banning just over 700 Celtic supporters after apparently identifying around 35 ultras who they believe have bought tickets for the top of the table SWPL1 fixture at Ibrox tomorrow.

Celtic is just about the most cautious of football clubs and have rejected claims of a risk factor for this game from the Celtic support. The only violent incident in a women’s Glasgow Derby came when their own coach attacked the then Celtic manager Fran Alonso from behind after a match where Celtic scored a late goal.

Celtic have hosted theRangers three times this season with no trouble whatsoever. The sides met in women’s Scottish Cup Final at Hampden in May with a record breaking crowd in attendance and again passed without trouble with thousands of families attending with young supporters.

Today’s action by theRangers is disgraceful and has angered Celtic, who should now call for a postponement or for the game to be played behind closed doors as theRangers have concocted an excuse to manufacture an advantage after Celtic closed the gap at the top of the table last weekend.

Playing this game with their fans in attendance but our fans banned at the last minute is a disgrace. Celtic should not play their game.

Here’s the statement that the latest Ibrox club has released, following on from The Celtic Star’s story earlier today.

The Rangers Statement reads as follows..

It is with regret that all tickets purchased by Celtic FC supporters for Sunday’s match at Ibrox have sadly had to be cancelled.

Intelligence received by Rangers and Celtic on Thursday suggested groups of ‘risk’ supporters in a significant number had purchased tickets from the Celtic allocation.

Rangers called an urgent operational meeting between both clubs and Police Scotland, with Police Scotland indicating they would need to deploy a sizeable resource at short notice as opposed to it initially being a police-free fixture.

Rangers is committed to ensuring there are away supporters at our matches for both our men’s and women’s teams. However, a unique selling point of the women’s game is the unsegregated, family-friendly atmosphere, with many children attending these matches.

Taking all of that into account, Rangers’ security team decided it would be unsafe to allow these ‘risk’ supporters into the stadium, and with Celtic unwilling to cancel just their tickets, the decision to cancel all tickets was taken.

Rangers have informed Celtic, the SWPL and Police Scotland of our decision.