Manchester troublemakers ‘not Gers fans’
Official highlights individuals with no history of following Glasgow team
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Individuals with no known history of following Rangers were among those believed to be involved in the trouble in Manchester which marred the Uefa Cup final on Wednesday night, club officials said yesterday.
The trouble broke out when a big screen showing the match in Piccadilly Gardens failed to work just before kick-off.
Rangers chief executive Martin Bain said: “Those scenes obviously are dreadful and I’ve seen them myself, and we have been informed . . . that those scenes were caused by supporters that don’t normally attach themselves to our support.
“We’re extremely disappointed and we’ll do everything we possibly can to help Manchester Police find out who those perpetrators are.”
Rangers security chief Kenny Scott added that the club would take “appropriate action” against those responsible.
He said: “The difficulty is of course that many of these people will have no association with Rangers Football Club and that exacerbates our difficulties in dealing appropriately with the situation which occurred in Manchester.”
But Mr Scott said that, despite the trouble, the club had had “positive comments” from Uefa, the European football association, about the sporting behaviour of the majority of the Rangers supporters.
He added: “If there were 120,000 people or so in the city centre, 200 or so — according to police estimates and the estimates of the city of Manchester authorities — let down this club.”
A Tory MSP who had earlier suggested the police had over-reacted changed tack after seeing CCTV footage.
Murdo Fraser said the images showed that the situation had been far more serious than he had suspected.
“The attacks on police officers and paramedics are deplorable and have to be condemned without reservation. The perpetrators need to be brought to justice and dealt with by the courts and Rangers Football Club should ban those who have played any part in these despicable acts.”
Meanwhile, the Russian government has urged English football fans to behave “respectfully” at next week’s Champions League final in Moscow, when Manchester United take on Chelsea.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the authorities would look to ensure there were no attacks on English fans in revenge for the stabbing of a Russian fan in Manchester.
He urged the fans of the losing side not to react violently but said the police and military on duty in the city would control the event in a “proper and calm way”.
Drinking will be banned in the streets of Moscow and there will be no big screens for fans to watch the match.
“I think in Manchester I saw maybe 100,000 Scots fans and I do not want to see the same picture in Moscow,” said Mutko. “We will have everything different here.”
Visa restrictions have been lifted for anyone with a match ticket to allow them in and out of Russia four days either side of the game.
But coaches carrying fans from the airports to the Luzhniki Stadium will be given police escorts.
Some 6,000 officers will be on duty during the match.
