RANGERS will stage an open-top bus parade through the southside streets of Glasgow on Thursday, irrespective of the result against Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final the previous evening.
The Old Firm have previously shied away from even contemplating such celebrations, common to other clubs, for fear that the football and religious divisions across the city would create the potential for incident. The Ibrox club appear confident soc
iety has moved on and on Thursday afternoon, following their morning return from Manchester, the players will board a bus at Springfield Quay and wind their way along Paisley Road West to Ibrox.
In 1972, Rangers drove a flat-bed lorry around the running-track at Ibrox after their European Cup-Winners' Cup triumph but did not take to the streets. Club owner Sir David Murray believes if Thursday's street route is being taken in celebration of a second European triumph, and the second part of a potential quadruple, the club will have journeyed further on the field than ever before.
"We haven't won anything yet so let's be slightly cautious but as I sit here today this is as good as it's been (in my 20 years at the club]," he said. "Everybody goes on about Rangers in '72 and the other finals in '67 and '71. But I think the week that Rangers played in Barcelona they played Ayr United and there was only just short of 5,000 people there. This is a remarkable time and none of us probably realises it until we go back. Yes, '67 was remarkable and '72 remarkable. But I think when you take the financial parameters into it this time is more so. Derby County's wage bill is £5m more than Rangers. Newcastle's is nearly three times, Aston Villa's is double, Everton's is double. We have managed to get there with a group of new players. You would never envisage this, to be totally honest. It is a remarkable time."
Murray also took time out yesterday to call for an independent body to scrutinise any future fixture problems. Speaking at the end of a week in which the SPL, SFA and Rangers became embroiled in a row over the league's refusal to postpone the Ibrox club's match against Dundee United ahead of the UEFA Cup final, Murray reiterated his claim that the episode had been "embarrassing" for Scottish football.
Murray then suggested: "There is an argument that maybe there should be an independent body available to be assembled quickly who have an impartiality, if that is at all possible in Scotland because you have a vested interest, we all do, in a situation like that. There should have been a Plan B in place and there wasn't."
The Ibrox chairman admitted the fixture congestion had affected Rangers – "when they played the Hibs game they had only slept in their beds one of the previous four nights. Rest is important."
SPL executive chairman Lex Gold has defended his role, though he admitted that if Rangers are beaten by Zenit, he will be criticised. Asked if he was worried about getting the blame should Rangers fail, Gold said: "I don't need to worry about it, it will happen, so there's not a great deal of point in worrying."
He said he would welcome a meeting with Murray and emphasised that it appeared to have been forgotten that the SPL had already extended the season.
Gold claimed that the chief executive of the Russian league had told him that other clubs in Russia and the Russian media were upset by the postponements allowed to Zenit and added that Scotland manager George Burley had called him to make it clear that he had not been critical of the SPL.
Gold also pointed to the fact that in the past seven seasons, no other countries had allowed clubs to postpone matches before the UEFA Cup final. Only the SPL had allowed one club, Celtic in 2003, to bring forward a game before the final.
The full article contains 672 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
