PAUL Gascoigne has urged Rangers supporters to use tonight’s Europa League play-off tie against Legia Warsaw and Sunday’s Old Firm derby against Celtic to prove they are capable of staying within the bounds of acceptable behaviour.

Three thousand seats will lie empty at Ibrox tonight, a punishment handed down by Uefa in response to the club being found guilty of racist behaviour, including sectarian singing, at this season’s meeting with St Joseph’s of Gibraltar.

The club’s former nine-in-a-row hero, in town to promote Premier Sports’ coverage of Serie A, is hardly blameless himself in this regard, having been fined and subjected to IRA threats after twice mimicking playing a flute twice during his playing days, first during a friendly against Steaua Bucharest shortly after his arrival in 1995 then during an Old Firm match in 1998.

With Rangers potentially looking at a complete stadium closure in the event of further incidents, the 52-year-old feels that now is time for the club’s fans to prove people wrong by behaving impeccably in both matches.

The Herald:

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“Every player wants to play in a packed house,” said Gascoigne. “It would be going through a players’ mind. When you are playing on the pitch and you see 3,000 seats empty it does seem weird. No-one would want to play in an empty stadium, I certainly wouldn’t.

“So hopefully the fans have got a good chance now to prove people wrong in the derby on Sunday by not causing any trouble whatsoever and obviously the same applies to the Europa League match against Legia Warsaw,” he added. “Hopefully the fans can just stop there. It is a big thing for Glasgow Rangers as a club to say that if you don’t stop the singing then they will ban everybody. That is massive.

“Especially because I know how crazy the fans are, how fanatical. And how big it is in the derby, where unfortunately it can be catholic against protestant. I know that more than anything, from doing that [the flute]. I won’t be doing that again.

“I remember after the game against Steaua Bucharest, when I did it, I went into the dressing room afterwards and all the lads had their heads down. I said: ‘lads have I done something wrong there?’, that was my first goal for Rangers. I wake up the next morning and I am buzzing to get the papers.

“I was expecting back pages for a goal on my debut, but I was on first page, second page, third page, every page. ‘The IRA are going to get us’. Oh, my God. When I went into training again on Monday, I said ‘you ba******, I think I have done something wrong here!’

“Walter Smith said I think I need to see you in my office. I got a letter six months saying I should board up my house. All the lads there were trying to see the funny side, but I thought that isn’t funny guys.”