Thursday, November 5, 2009

Uefa to investigate Rangers fans

Fans and stewards clash at half-time
Rangers fans and stewards clashed at half-time

Uefa will wait on its delegate's report before holding an investigation into the trouble at Wednesday's match between Rangers and Unirea Uziceni.

Rangers supporters were involved in a half-time disturbance at the Ghencea Stadium in Bucharest.

Fans were seen on TV destroying seats and challenging match stewards.

Uefa's head of communications Rob Faulkner told BBC Scotland: "We take any incident like this seriously, but we have to get all the facts."

Police used CS gas spray in an effort to disperse the Glasgow club's fans during what Rangers Supporters Assembly chief Andy Kerr described as a "minor incident".

While Rangers chief executive Martin Bain condemned the "unacceptable" behaviour of some of the Glasgow club's fans at the Champions League game, he is expected to tell Uefa that he believes poor organisation and over-zealous policing contributed to the trouble.

Obviously the behaviour of some of the fans inside the stadium was unacceptable

Rangers chief executive Martin Bain

But Faulkner, who expects to receive the delegates report later on Thursday, said that the reason for the clashes requires further investigation.

"As far as we can establish at the moment, it seems there were a number of Rangers supporters who came late into the stadium and we need to find out why," he said.

"Then there was an issue about where they were going to sit as apparently there were banners already placed there, which resulted in the request to remove some banners, which seems to have ended in a clash between stewards and some supporters.

"If we need to discuss with people who were there on site we will do that, and obviously we'll take action after that. In the next couple of days we should know."

The trouble in the stands has overshadowed the game itself, Unirea Urziceni's Marius Onofras scoring in the 88th-minute to force a 1-1 draw in the match after Lee McCulloch's shot had put the visitors ahead 11 minutes from time.

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A half-time announcement threatened an abandonment of the match and Faulkner insisted this was made at the request of the match delegate in a bid to quieten down the atmosphere.

Bain was also critical of the shortage of entry access for spectators at the stadium, which is the home of Steaua Bucharest.

He claimed a promise that four turnstiles would be open for visiting fans was not kept, causing problems that were compounded by police using CS gas, something Faulkner said would be taken into account if proven to be the case.

"Obviously the behaviour of some of the fans inside the stadium was unacceptable," Bain told Rangers' website.

The game had been moved to Steaua's stadium as Unirea's own ground, 25km away and with a 7,000 capacity, had been deemed unfit to host a Champions League tie.

However, problems arose before the match as Rangers fans tried to enter the ground through just two turnstiles.

"Rangers came to this stadium with representatives from Uefa and Unirea a number of weeks ago and arranged for the four turnstiles to be open to give access to our supporters," said Bain.

"When they arrived this evening, there were only two turnstiles open, which caused difficulty gaining access, and for fans then to be sprayed with CS gas is totally unacceptable.

"I will now make representation to Uefa on their behalf."

It is as yet unclear exactly what triggered the clash between a section of the visiting support and stewards at half-time.

Seats and punches were thrown by fans and television pictures showed stewards spraying tear gas at close range.

At one point, the fans surged forward to recover a supporter who had been grabbed by the Romanian stewards.

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