Rangers have confirmed a switch in date of this week’s Champions League fixture with Napoli from Tuesday to Wednesday, and the absence of any Italian fans at Ibrox for the match.
There had been major discussions with UEFA about what to do with regards the fixture in light of Her Majesty’s passing, and while one solution had briefly been to swap the fixtures with Napoli around, this was never a serious prospect due to the logistical mayhem it would have caused.
As it is, this situation will still cause issues, with a change of day, and in fairness we do slightly wonder what the point of making it one day later is, but it is what it is.
There will be a lot of fans who will be no longer able to attend, and the club will refund them their tickets, but with the loss of Napoli fans at Ibrox (a real shame, frankly) more home supporters will be able to attend.
It is a bit messy, but it’s probably the least messy of all the potential solutions and resolves the policing issues which were significant on the Tuesday.
Postponing the match wouldn’t have been possible, swapping fixtures wouldn’t have worked either.
So a simple delay of 24 hours has been deemed the answer.
And that’s that.
I think it’s a bonus that there won’t be Rangers fans at the return game in Naples. Having saw the warnings given by Liverpool to their fans about the dangers of just being in Naples it’s probably best that our fans sit this one out. Seems amazing to say that about a city in a major civilised European country.
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