Rangers “strongly considering” position on Australia Cup

Rangers’ participation in the Australian Stavros Cup is now looking in major doubt after it was confirmed the club is strongly proposing pulling out.

Following a massive groundswell of opposition back home to the ‘friendly’ against Celtic, including controversial protests at Dens Park on Sunday, not to mention objections from the board about the timing of the announcements (it’s only March and we have much more important things to deal with right now) it is now being strongly considered that the club will withdraw.

We mean this with the highest respect, and we do value our Australian fans, but the fans back home are the bread and butter of our club and the vast majority are unhappy about this friendly.

We want nothing more than to have a friendly tournament in Australia to meet our Rangers Family Down Under who we know would love to see the team in the flesh, which many of them may not ever do in their lifetimes, but unfortunately this particular tournament is far too close to getting into bed with Celtic.

The morals of being involved with a project spearheaded by them has gone down like a lead balloon with most UK fans, and with Glasgow fans especially right at the epicentre of ill-feeling towards the Parkhead side, continuing with this tournament is just a horrible distraction at the worst time, and as we saw at Dens, it could spill over into affecting matches.

While the money is useful, nothing else about it is, and it’s good the club is considering reversing the decision.

We can surely find other avenues of revenue to use, other friendlies, maybe even something in Australia, but nothing in Celtic’s honour, thank you very much.