Rangers: Thunder against the Old Firm down under unlikely to subside as Ibrox board face increasing Sydney Super Cup pressure

As their team on the pitch delivered an object lesson in digging themselves out of a hole at Dens Park on Sunday, the Rangers directors sitting in the Main Stand may have found themselves wondering how they can apply a similar strategy to reversing their commitment to play Celtic in Australia later this year.

Play was stopped for the third time in the match at Dens Park on Sunday when Rangers fans again threw toilet rolls into the goalmouth. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Managing director Stewart Robertson and his fellow board members would probably have anticipated some dissent in the ranks when they accepted the invitation to join their Old Firm rivals in the Sydney Super Cup tournament which will take place in November when domestic football shuts down ahead of the World Cup Finals in Qatar.

But they clearly did not expect the intense level of opprobrium which has been heaped upon them from a significant and sizeable proportion of the Rangers support who are virulently opposed to the fixture against Celtic at the Accor Stadium on November 20 which will form the centrepiece of a four-team friendly tournament also featuring local clubs Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers.

Chants have been sung and banners displayed expressing their disapproval ever since details of the trip down under were announced at the start of this month, while the Club 1872 fan shareholder group have formally urged the board to withdraw amid a feeling Rangers are travelling as a support act to what Celtic are billing as a homecoming for their Australian manager Ange Postecoglou.

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson (top) and sporting director Ross Wilson look on from the Main Stand at Dens Park on Sunday. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

There is also a darker element to the antagonism from a section of the support who conflate it with the forthcoming group action legal claim against Celtic by survivors of sex abuse allegations at Celtic Boys Club.

If the Ibrox directors felt they could ride out the early storm of protest, Sunday might just have forced them to think again. For the first time, the actions of the Rangers fans had a direct impact on events on the pitch as play was halted on three separate occasions – twice at the start of the match and then again just after kick-off in the second half – by a barrage of toilet rolls and tennis balls into the goalmouth in front of where the away support were located.

The irritation of Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was obvious and shared by his players, most notably goalkeeper Allan McGregor who wasn’t reticent when it came to informing the fans exactly what he thought about the unwelcome interruptions.

In a difficult contest on a dreadful pitch where Rangers wanted to up the tempo in their efforts to overturn Dundee’s early goal, the delay at the start of the second half was especially frustrating from the Scottish champions’ perspective.

A steward removes tennis balls from the Dens Park pitch during one of the stoppages in play forced by Rangers fans' protests on Sunday. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Van Bronckhorst’s team managed to secure a precious victory nonetheless, courtesy of Connor Goldson’s late winner, but they cannot afford the Sydney issue to provide any further disruptions or distractions for them as they pursue success in the Premiership, Scottish Cup and Europa League in the last two months of the season.

It’s unclear what kind of financial penalty clause there is in the contract Rangers have signed to participate in the Sydney Cup for an undisclosed fee which Ibrox commercial director James Bisgrove says is more than they earn from a full season of Premiership TV income.

It increasingly looks like a price they will be forced to pay.

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