The league flag will be raised at Ibrox today in front of a full house of appreciative Rangers supporters.
Red means no amber, to give the green light for the blue sea.
To make that a bit more straightforward, current SPFL rules dictate that a ‘red zone’ is in place behind the dugouts, with subs and club staff positioned there.
That means the season ticket holders usually in those Enclosure seats at Ibrox need to be accomodated elsewhere – the only area possible for the switch is the usual Away section in the Govan West corner.
Unfortunately, this means for Premiership games that due to Rangers very high season ticket numbers that there is no other option for opposition fans.
That is the case for Motherwell and the scenario looks set to continue for the forseeable future.
Ahead of the Steelmen’s visit to Ibrox, the Fir Park side confirmed the following:
“Having initially been declined an allocation, subsequent dialogue led to Rangers providing us with a detailed explanation that, due to the displacement of some supporters due to a Covid “red zone”, an away section is not possible.”
“While regrettable that no Motherwell fans can attend, we accept that Covid restrictions have led to an unavoidable situation.”
Consequences
The outlier to this situation has been for some cup games at Ibrox so far this season, including Dunfermline as well as midweek in the Europa League when a small Lyon contingent was present within the stadium.
The reason for that was a different ticket situation with season ticket holders not automatically taking up the option to reserve their seat for such games.
As an obvious contentious situation, there will be further consequences, likely for both Rangers home and away games, until such a time that Covid restrictions are gone and things effectively normalise.
Rivalry is an essential part of football and adds to the matchday experience so the sooner, the better.