Rangers Football Club today paid tribute to the 66 supporters who lost their lives in the 1971 Ibrox disaster.
The club’s Honorary Life President, John Greig, led the tributes ahead of the first Glasgow derby of 2023, laying a wreath bearing the words ‘Always Remembered’ at the feet of his own statue beside the main stand which commemorates those who died in the tragedy 52 years ago.
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Alongside Greig (80) stood members of the Rangers board, fan representatives abnd first team manager Michael Beale.
Also in attendance today were representatives of Celtic Football Club.
The commemoration takes place annually ahead of the first home game of the new year at Ibrox and was today held before the first Glasgow derby of 2023.
A total of 66 Rangers supporters lost their lives in the crush which occurred in the closing minutes of the 1971 New Year derby match. Over 200 fans were also injured.
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The youngest victim iwas 8-year-old Nigel Pickup from Merseyside, who had come up to spend new year with family in Glasgow and was attending his first ‘big’ match. Five schoolchildren who had travelled together from the village of Markinch in Fife also lost their lives. The 66 victims also included 31 teenagers.
Hundreds of supporters gathered behind barriers in front of the main stand to take part in today's tribute, which featured a lone piper clad in Rangers colours who played a lament.
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Many stepped forward to lay their own tributes, including Celtic Football Club - whose wreath also commemorated the first Ibrox Disaster in 1902, where 25 died and over 500 were injured when part of the old West Tribune Stand collapsed during a home international between Scotland and England.
Today's tributes also included a poem by Ashleigh Crawford Findlay, whose grandfather John Buchanan was among the 66 victims in 1971 and whose name features alongside the others on the brickwork of the Ibrox memorial.
"I stare at the wall, your name engraved in black. You and sixty five others, would never come back," she wrote. "Memory of you all, will never be forgot. Glasgow was united is what I am taught."
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