RANGERS have said they are unable to offer fans travel to their Europa league qualifier with their official travel partner.
The club said the decision was made after "extensive discussions" with Thomas Cook Sport.
The Ibrox club are to take on FK Shkupi of Macedonia in the Europa League at Ibrox on July 12 before the return leg seven days later.
Shkupi, who are based in Skopje, finished fourth in the Macedonian First Division and are competing in Europe for the first time.
The three-year travel partnership was announced just ten days ago.
The club said that the "limited aircraft available has led to huge cost implications, which the club and Thomas Cook Sport have agreed is not fair or feasible on this occasion".
When the deal was announced the club said Thomas Cook Sport will provide the club with "official supporter travel products for domestic and European games, as well as travel for the first team".
- READ MORE: Rangers reach agreement with Roma over season-long loan deal for Nigerian striker Umar Sadiq
The Ibrox club said: "They will use their expert knowledge to help the team and staff travel seamlessly across the country and further afield around Europe.
But in a statement, Rangers said: "Following extensive discussions with our travel partner, Thomas Cook Sport, over the past seven days, we are unable to offer supporters a dedicated trip for fans keen to travel to Macedonia for the Europa League Fixture on July 17.
"Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this decision may cause you."
Although the allure of watching the first appearance of Steven Gerrard’s Rangers will attract a crowd of close to the Ibrox capacity of 50,817, fewer travelling supporters were expected to be able to travel to the second leg as Shkupi’s Cair Stadium can accommodate just 6,000 spectators, of whom only 2,000 can be seated.
- READ MORE: Rangers reach agreement with Roma over season-long loan deal for Nigerian striker Umar Sadiq
Rob Slawson, Head of Thomas Cook Sport said when the deal was signed: “We have a long-standing relationship with Rangers, so we’re delighted to sign this new partnership with the famous club as they embark on a new era with Steven Gerrard. We’re proud to deliver our industry leading supporter travel and team travel services and we’ll be looking to make sure both the club and fans travel comfortably across Europe for future games.”
Rangers said it had joined a long list of clubs who work with Thomas Cook Sport, including Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea FC, Everton, Liverpool FC, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel