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For other teams called Rangers, see Rangers F.C. (disambiguation). See Ranger for other meanings.

Rangers F.C.

File:Rangers.png
Full name	Rangers Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Gers, Teddy Bears, Light Blues.
Founded	1873
Ground	Ibrox Stadium Glasgow Scotland
Capacity	51,082
Chairman	Sir David Murray
Manager	Walter Smith
League	Scottish Premier League
2005-2006	Scottish Premier League, 3rd
Home colours Away colours

Rangers Football Club is a football club from Glasgow, Scotland, which plays in the Scottish Premier League. Rangers are the most successful club in Scottish football, with 51 league titles, and have won the most trophies of any football club in the world.

The club's home, the all-seated 51,082-capacity Ibrox Stadium in south-west Glasgow, has been accredited as one of UEFA's five-star stadia.

Rangers players and fans today are multi-national and of various religions, although the club has traditionally been identified with the Protestant Unionist community of Scotland. For most of their history, Rangers have enjoyed a fierce rivalry with their cross-city opponents Celtic F.C.

The club is nicknamed The Teddy Bears, from the rhyming slang for Gers (short for Rangers), and the fans are known to each other as 'Bluenoses'. The club's correct name is simply Rangers F.C. although it is sometimes incorrectly called Glasgow Rangers. This frequently happens with English commentators seeking to distinguish between them and other similarly-named clubs, particularly Queens Park Rangers F.C. This naming convention is also popular in Europe and further afield, where any club without its location in its name receives it as a prefix or suffix, for example Red Star Belgrade.

History

Rangers Football Club has a long and illustrious history. Formed in 1873, Rangers were the first club in the world to win more than 50 league titles. Rangers are the most honoured football club in the world having won 107 trophies in total

Recent history

For current information on this topic, see Rangers F.C. season 2006-07. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Under Paul Le Guen (2006-2007)

Paul Le Guen replaced former manager Alex McLeish as manager after season 2005-06. Known for unearthing and nurturing young talent, Le Guen made an immediate splash in the transfer market signing South African Under-19 player Dean Furman from Chelsea, and youngsters William Stanger and Antoine Ponroy from Rennes. While allowing Ibrox favourite Alex Rae to move to a new career as player-manager of Dundee, Peter Løvenkrands to go to Schalke 04 and Sotirios Kyrgiakos to Eintracht Frankfurt. Other notable signings included Karl Svensson from IFK Göteborg in addition to Czech national Libor Sionko and Slovakian striker Filip Šebo. Both signed in early August from Austria Vienna, where they had been part of the previous season's double-winning side. Rangers had been strongly linked with a host of other players and signed midfielder Jeremy Clement from Lyon and goalkeeper Lionel Letizi from Paris St Germain as a replacement for the departing Ronald Waterreus. Senegalese midfield player Makhtar N'Diaye signed a one-year contract after a short trial period with the club. Also in August, Rangers signed the 19-year-old winger Lee Martin and defender Phil Bardsley on loan from Manchester United for a season. On August 31, 2006, Rangers agreed terms with Austria Vienna's Bosnian defender Saša Papac.

Le Guen told a number of players that they were surplus to requirements, including Marvin Andrews, Olivier Bernard, Hamed Namouchi, Bob Malcolm and Jose-Karl Pierre-Fanfan. Namouchi was the first of these to leave, completing a £450,000 move to FC Lorient on August 24. Andrews, Bernard, Fanfan and Malcolm were all released from their player contracts at the close of the summer transfer window, effectively making them free agents to sign anywhere without having to adhere to transfer dates or receiving any compensation from their new prospective clubs.

The season started poorly for Le Guen and Rangers. With a variety of losses and draws to SPL teams, followed by a 2-0 loss to St Johnstone, who play one division lower, in the CIS Insurance Cup, which lead some Rangers fans to protest outside of Ibrox against chairman David Murray. A 2-0 loss in the first Old Firm match of the season also did Rangers no favours and at one point in November they were 18 points behind leaders Celtic. Rangers took some consolation in their UEFA Cup form, which saw them defeat Livorno of Italy and Maccabi Haifa of Israel, and were drawn against Auxerre to become the first Scottish club to progress from the UEFA Cup group stages.

The draw for the last 32 of the UEFA Cup paired Rangers with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and then to play the winner of the Bordeaux vs Osasuna tie in the last 16 of the competition.

On January 1 2007 it was announced that, after a meeting between Paul Le Guen and Barry Ferguson, Ferguson had been stripped of the captaincy of the club and would not play again for Rangers under the current manager. Three days later Rangers announced that Le Guen and his management team had left the club. Ian Durrant took over as caretaker, but had little luck in immediately reversing the club's fortunes, as they suffered a 3-2 Scottish Cup exit to Dunfermline Athletic.

Walter Smith's return (2007-present)

Following the departure of Paul Le Guen, a number of media sources report an "understanding" that the new management structure would consist of former Rangers manager Walter Smith and former player Ally McCoist, and the SFA confirmed that Rangers enquired about the availability of the pair. However, on January 8, the SFA rebuffed Rangers' approach for Smith.

On 10 January 2007, it was announced that Smith was the new manager of Rangers, with McCoist confirmed as assistant manager and Kenny McDowall as first-team coach.

The Old Firm and Sectarianism

Rangers' most distinct rivalry is with Celtic F.C., the other major football club based in Glasgow; the two clubs are collectively known as the Old Firm. Rangers' traditional support has largely come from the Protestant community, while Celtic's has come from the Roman Catholic community. Consequently, the rivalry between the two clubs has often been characterised along sectarian lines. Both Rangers and Celtic now accept that they have a problem with sectarianism, and both admit that a proportion of their supporters have been, and continue to be, guilty of perpetuating partisan, sectarian beliefs as well as cultural intolerance.

During the late 19th century, many immigrants came to Glasgow from Ireland. This was around the same time that both Old Firm clubs were founded, Rangers in 1873 and Celtic in 1888. Celtic grew out of the Irish Catholic community and Rangers came to be identified with the Protestant community.

In recent times, both Rangers and Celtic have taken measures to combat sectarianism. Working alongside the Scottish Parliament, church groups, schools and community organisations, the Old Firm has made efforts to clamp down on sectarian songs, inflammatory flag-waving, and troublesome supporters, using increased levels of policing and surveillance.

On 12 April 2006, following an investigation into the conduct of Rangers supporters at both legs of their UEFA Champions League tie against Villarreal CF, the Control and Disciplinary Body of UEFA declared the Rangers fans not guilty of alleged discriminatory chants. UEFA challenged the ruling, and their Appeals Body partially upheld the appeal, fining the Ibrox club £13,500, and warning the club as to their responsibility for any future misconduct.

On 9 June 2006, Rangers, in conjunction with representatives from several supporters clubs, announced that they would comply with three UEFA directives:

• The club is "ordered to announce measurable targets in order to reduce sectarian behaviour amongst its supporters".
• The club is "to control their anti-sectarian activities by producing comprehensive statistics that are communicated to the public".
• The club is "to make a public address announcement at every official fixture, be it international or domestic, stating that any sectarian chanting and any form of the song Billy Boys is strictly prohibited".

Stadium and training facility

The club used a variety of grounds in Glasgow as a venue for home matches in the years between 1872 and 1899. The first was Flesher's Haugh, situated on Glasgow Green, followed by Burnbank in the Kelvinbridge area of the city and then Kinning Park for ten years from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s. From February of the 1886-87 season Cathkin Park was used, until the first Ibrox Park, in the Govan area of south-west Glasgow was inaugurated for the following season. Ibrox Stadium in its current incarnation was originally designed by the architect Archibald Leitch, a Rangers fan who also played a part in the design of, among others, Old Trafford in Manchester and Highbury in London. The stadium was inaugurated on December 30, 1899; Rangers defeated Hearts 3-1 in the first match held there.

Since 1899, two major disasters have taken place at the stadium. The first occurred in 1902 during a Scotland vs England international match, when a section of terracing collapsed leading to the deaths of 26 people and over 500 injuries. The second disaster took place during the traditional New Year's Day Old Firm game in 1971. As the crowd were leaving the match, barriers on the stairway to the rear of passageway 13 at the Copland End collapsed, causing a crush and resulting in the deaths of 66 people, with over 200 injuries. The second disaster led to a major redevelopment of Ibrox, overseen by the general manager Willie Waddell. After being converted to an all seater stadium, Ibrox was awarded UEFA five-star status.

The stands in Ibrox are: The Bill Struth Main Stand (three tiers; the top one known as the Club Deck), Govan Stand (two tiers), and the Copland and Broomloan Stands (both two tiers) which are behind the goals. In addition to these, there are also the East and West Enclosures (in the lower tier of the Main Stand), and the two corners adjacent to the Govan Stand are filled in. After work in summer 2006 to make the Bar 72 area situated in the Govan Stand, the total capacity of Ibrox is 51,082. On August 22 2006, Rangers announced that the Main Stand would be renamed The Bill Struth Main Stand in September 2006 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of their former manager Bill Struth, who served as manager of Rangers for 34 years.

Rangers training facility is located in Auchenhowie, near Milngavie in Glasgow. The facility is known as Murray Park after chairman Sir David Murray. It was proposed by then-manager Dick Advocaat on his arrival at the club in 1998 and was completed in 2001 at a cost of £14m. Murray Park is the first purpose built facility of its kind in Scotland, and incorporates features including nine football pitches, a state of the art gym, a hydrotherapy pool and a video editing suite. Rangers' youth teams are also accommodated at Murray Park, with around 140 players between under-10 and under-19 age groups using the training centre. Various first team players have come through the ranks at Murray Park, including Chris Burke, Stevie Smith and Charlie Adam. International club teams playing in Scotland, as well as national sides, have previously used Murray Park for training, and Advocaat's South Korea team used it for training prior to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Notable players

Notable past and present players at Ibrox include:

¹ - Player is included in the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame.

² - Player is currently playing for the club.

Team managers

Name	Nationality	Period	Record
			P	W	L	D	Win %
William Wilton		1899–1920
Bill Struth		1920–1954
Scott Symon		1954–1967
David White		1967–1969
William Waddell		1969–1972
Jock Wallace		1972–1978
John Greig		1978–1983
Jock Wallace		1983–1986
Graeme Souness		1986–1991
Walter Smith		1991–1998	266	169	48	49	63.53
Dick Advocaat		1998–2001	194	131	30	33	67.53
Alex McLeish		2001–2006	235	155	36	44	65.96
Paul Le Guen		2006–2007	31	16	7	8	51.61
Walter Smith		2007–Present	3	2	0	1	66.67

Current squad

2006-07 Transfers

For a list of Rangers' 2006-07 transfers, see here.

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  GER Stefan Klos 2 DF  SCO Andy Webster (on loan from Wigan Athletic) 3 DF  SCO David Weir 4 FW  BEL Thomas Buffel 5 DF  BIH Saša Papac 6 MF  SCO Barry Ferguson (captain) 7 DF  FRA Brahim Hemdani 8 MF  SCO Kevin Thomson 9 FW  CRO Dado Pršo 10 FW  ESP Nacho Novo 11 MF  SCO Gavin Rae 12 DF  ENG Ugo Ehiogu

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 MF  CZE Libor Sionko 15 FW  SCO Kris Boyd 17 MF  SCO Chris Burke 18 DF  SCO Ian Murray 19 DF  SWE Karl Svensson 20 DF  SCO Alan Hutton 22 GK  SCO Allan McGregor 23 FW  SVK Filip Šebo 25 MF  SCO Charlie Adam 26 DF  SCO Steven Smith 28 DF  FRA Antoine Ponroy 30 MF  SEN Makhtar N'Diaye

Reserve and Youth Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 34 GK  ENG Lee Robinson 36 DF  SCO Steven Campbell 41 DF  SCO Alan Lowing 42 MF  SCO Steven Lennon 43 MF  SCO Sam Woods 44 MF  SCO Paul Emslie 45 FW  SCO Rory Loy 47 MF  RSA Dean Furman 48 DF  SCO Jordan McMillan 49 GK  SCO Joe Sagar 50 DF  SCO Daryll Boyd 51 DF  SCO Scott Hadden 52 DF  SCO Ross Harvey

No. Pos. Nation Player 53 MF  SCO William McLachlan 54 MF  SCO Steven Kinniburgh 59 DF  SCO Andrew Shinnie 64 GK  SCO Scott Gallacher 66 FW  CIV Lacine Cheriff 69 DF  SCO Chris Smith 70 FW  SCO John Fleck –– FW  BEL Jeroen van den Broeck –– FW  NIR Andrew Little –– FW  SCO Archie Campbell –– FW  SCO Chris Craig –– FW  DEN Adda Djeziri (on loan from BK Frem)

Players out on loan:

• Calum Reidford - to Dundee
• Martin Ure - to Cumnock

Non-playing staff

Boardroom

Management

Club records

Record home attendance: 118,567 .v. Celtic, January 1939

Record victory: 13-0 .v. Possilpark, Scottish Cup, October 1877

Record league victory: 10-0 .v. Hibernian, December 1898

Record defeat: 2-10 .v. Airdrieonians, 1886

Record league defeat: 0-6 Dumbarton, May 1892

Record appearances: John Greig, 755, 1960-1978

Record league appearances: Sandy Archibald, 513, 1917-1934

Record Scottish Cup appearances: Alec Smith, 74

Record league cup appearances: John Greig, 121

Record European appearances: John Greig, 64

Record goalscorer: Ally McCoist, 355 goals, 1983-1998

Most goals in one season: Sam English, 44 goals, 1931/1932

Most league goals: Ally McCoist, 251 goals

Most Scottish Cup goals: Jimmy Fleming, 44 goals

Most League Cup goals: Ally McCoist, 54 goals

Most European goals: Ally McCoist, 21 goals

Shutout record: Chris Woods, 1196 minutes, 1986/87 (British record)

Most capped player: Frank de Boer, 112 caps for The Netherlands

Highest transfer fee received: Giovanni van Bronckhorst, £8.5m, Arsenal, 2001

Highest transfer fee paid: Tore André Flo, £12.5m, Chelsea, 2000

Greatest team

The following team was voted as the greatest-ever Rangers team at an awards ceremony in 1999. Thousands of Rangers fans voted:

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SCO Andy Goram 2 DF  SCO Sandy Jardine 3 DF  SCO John Greig 4 DF  SCO Richard Gough 5 DF  ENG Terry Butcher 6 MF  SCO Jim Baxter 7 MF  SCO Davie Cooper 8 MF  ENG Paul Gascoigne 9 FW  SCO Ally McCoist 10 FW  ENG Mark Hateley 11 MF  DEN Brian Laudrup

Honours

• Rangers hold the world record for number of domestic league championships won, racking up 51 titles.
• They hold the record for domestic trebles, with seven so far.
• Rangers won their 100th major trophy in 2000, the first club in the world to reach that milestone.
• Have competed in European competitions in more seasons than any other British club, 46 times as of and including 2006-07.
• First Scottish club to qualify from both the Champions League group stage (2005-06) and the UEFA Cup group stage (2006-07).

Major honours

League

• Scottish League championships (51):

Cups

• European Cup Winners’ Cup winners: 1972
• Scottish Cup winners (31):

• League Cup winners (24):

Other honours

League

• Emergency War League (1): 1940
• Southern League (6): 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946
• Glasgow League (2): 1895/96, 1897/98

Cups

• Milk Cup (3): (Premier) 1984, 1992; (Junior) 1985
• Drybrough Cup (1): 1979
• Tennents' Sixes (2): 1984, 1989
• Glasgow Cup (44): 1893, 1894, 1897, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1948, 1950, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1969, 1971, 1975*, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987
  *1975 trophy shared with Celtic after 2-2 draw
• Glasgow Merchants and Charity Cup (32): 1878-79, 1896-97, 1899-1900, 1903-04, 1905-06, 1906-07, 1908-09, 1910-11, 1918-19, 1921-22, 1922-23, 1924-25, 1927-28, 1928-29, 1929-30, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1932-33, 1933-34, 1938-39, 1939-40, 1940-41, 1941-42, 1943-44, 1944-45, 1945-46, 1946-47, 1947-48, 1950-51, 1954-55, 1956-57, 1959-60

References

1. ^ "A Look at Ibrox's Rich History". Rangers Official Website.
2. ^ "Total Number of Championships". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 23 November 2006.
3. ^ "Glasgow Rangers - 100 Trophies". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 21 October 2001.
4. "A rivalry tied up in religion". BBC Website. 26 August 2006.
5. "Gers strip Ferguson of captaincy". BBC Sport website. 1 January 2007.
6. "Le Guen and Rangers part company". BBC Sport website.
7. "Rangers' Smith approach revealed". BBC Sport website. 7 January 2007.
8. "SFA reject Rangers' Smith move". BBC Sport website. 8 January 2007.
9. "Smith installed as Rangers boss". BBC Sport website. 10 January 2007.
10. "Who's getting cuffed today?". Sunday Herald. 24 April 2005.
11. "Rangers handed fine". UEFA Website. 12 April 2006.
12. "Rangers appeal upheld". UEFA Website. 24 May 2006.
13. "Joint Supporter/Club Statement". Rangers FC Website.
14. "Scottish football". June 2006.
15. "Gers to unveil The Bill Struth Stand on September 9". Follow Follow Fansite. 22 August 2006.
16. "New kids on the ball". Evening Times. 30 January 2007.
17. "Domestic Trebles". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 23 November 2006.
18. "Rangers 1-1 Inter Milan". BBC Sport website. 6 December 2005.
19. "Auxerre 2-2 Rangers". BBC Sport website. 23 November 2006.

External links

• Official website
• Rangers F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results and fixtures

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• Football (soccer) clubs established in 1873
• Rangers F.C.
• Scottish football clubs
• Sport in Glasgow