Rangers forced to withdraw from Obendorf Tournament by Lowland League clubs
Rangers have been forced to withdraw from the Obendorf Tournament in Germany which they were due to send their Under-19s side to.
The German youth tournament has attracted some of the World’s biggest clubs over the years with Manchester City, AC Milan and Barcelona among the elite sides sending a team to compete.
The Light Blues had agreed to participate as well but the tournament schedule conflicts with the start of the Lowland League in which the B team will play in for the second successive season and the Gers asked to have games postponed to allow them to compete.
The rest of the clubs in the Lowland League were given the chance to vote on whether to allow the games to be pushed back but came back to deny the motion which forced Rangers’ hand into a withdrawal.
“The Scottish associations left the decision to the other teams and Rangers had a week to convince their opponents,” tournament director Oliver Hauer said, as quoted by Football Scotland.
“But they wouldn’t agree to it in the end and we can’t change their vote. Rangers didn’t agree with this decision either as they sadly assured me on the phone.
“We will definitely try to sign the Scots for one of the next tournaments because Rangers really wanted to come. Thankfully, we were able to reach an agreement with Villarreal to replace them.”
Double-edged sword
Rangers have to be really careful not to push the clubs in the Lowland League too much because they very nearly prevented the B team from playing senior football in the 2022-23 season.
Ourselves, Celtic and Hearts have all managed to enter youth sides into the fifth tier of Scottish Football but it took two votes to make that happen and we were always pushing our luck to get these games moved back.
We could have made things work regardless because we have plenty of players in the academy that could cover both the Obendorf Tournament and any Lowland League games we have to play at the same time.
Let’s not forget that the B side can’t get promoted so our league position is almost irrelevant as we try to give our youngsters some first-team experience.
We could have easily sacrificed a handful of Scottish domestic games by playing very young lads while the older academy graduates took on the best in the world on German soil.
In other Rangers news, Ross Wilson is yet to receive any offers for one of the Bears’ best players but interest in his services is high.