Where Rangers could switch Premiership and Champions League matches to amid Ibrox revamp gaffe

Rangers have limited time to find themselves a venue to play their 'home' games at the start of the season.

That's after admitting a cock-up which has forced a delay to renovation works on the Copland Road stand of Ibrox. A hold-up with materials being shipped from Asia has been confirmed as the cause with Gers forced to scramble for new plans having expected the multi-million revamp of the stand to be ready for the new season.

Philippe Clement's side will now likely have to find an alternative venue to play home games towards the start of the 2024/25 campaign which would affect them in both the Premiership and Champions League qualifiers. Speculation over a venue has already begun but there aren't too many options.

Hampden has already been ruled out as it will host two P!nk music concerts at the end of this month before then having it's grass surface ripped up for a new one to be laid and ruling it out until September. Murrayfield, where Rangers play a friendly against Manchester United next month, could be an option. While far from ideal as it's the other end of the M8 in Edinburgh, the rugby stadium holds a bigger capacity so offers the chance to ever so slightly mitigate the costs of hiring another stadium.

Chairman and acting CEO John Bennett has been left fuming by the situation and it has been reported that a senior member of staff has been fired as a result. Another option would be to play all games at the start of the season away from home, but Philippe Clement will want to avoid that.

Rangers informed fans of the problem today and said in a statement: “Rangers has recently been advised of a delay in a materials shipment from Asia which is likely to have an impact on the programme for the completion of the Copland Stand works. It is therefore expected, unfortunately, that there will be an impact on matches at Ibrox at the beginning of the 2024/25 competitive season.

“The club has engaged with the SPFL and UEFA in order to review planned contingency arrangements. Naturally, everyone at Rangers is deeply disappointed with this news. The club is working intensively to ensure that all steps are taken to deliver the project at the earliest possible date and a further progress update will be issued to supporters in due course.”

The SPFL have since put out a statement vowing to work with Gers to find a solution, explaining: "We have received notification from Rangers FC that they may be unable to host SPFL fixtures in August at Ibrox Stadium due to ongoing stadium works. We have agreed to work with Rangers on how we can best mitigate this situation following next week’s publication of the fixture calendar for season 2024/25.”