| Rangers to escape UEFA punishment
Rangers look set to escape further punishment from UEFA following their UEFA Cup tie in Molde. They were fined £13,300 by the football governing body for "discriminatory chanting" by fans in their last European games, the Champions League matches against Villarreal last season. The club have stepped up their efforts to stamp out bigotry at football games this season and had reported a marked improvement in the behaviour of their fans.
But an anti-sectarian message read out by the PA announcer at the Aker Stadium ahead of the Molde game was met with the opposite response from the 1,000 travelling fans. However, UEFA look unlikely to take any action this time. "My report will be nothing special," said UEFA delegate Lucien Kayser. "Rangers have nothing to worry about."
A Rangers statement said: "Rangers and the overwhelming majority of its supporters are doing everything in their power to combat the sectarian behaviour of a small minority of fans. There was intense activity and information provided in the build-up to this game in line with our anti-sectarian policy and fans travelling to the match were left in no doubt as to the clubs expectations. There has been significant progress made at Ibrox and at domestic away games and the club is absolutely determined to continue tackling any sectarian behaviour as vigorously as possible." |