Peter Grant and Barry Ferguson in agreement on ‘crazy’ rule ahead of Rangers v Sparta Prague in Europa League
Peter Grant and Barry Ferguson both agree that it is a “crazy” decision to make teams name their Europa League squad in August, as Rangers prepare to face Sparta Prague at Ibrox.
The Gers will be without left-back Ridvan Yilmaz once again when Sparta make the trip to Glasgow on Thursday (9 November), although Borna Barisic is at least now back from injury.
Philippe Clement may well have called up some youngsters to compensate for injuries in his backline, but that is not possible unless they were named in the squad by predecessor Michael Beale three months ago.
Speaking on Go Radio, via the Daily Record [8 November], former Celtic midfielder Grant said: “It’s a joke. You could have 40 player or 50 players, I don’t care.
“What are these young boys doing in the B teams? Say one is playing particularly well. ‘Aw but we named the squad at the start of the season so you’ve no chance of playing in Europe son.’ We’d have never played in Europe if the manager named it at the start of the season.
“If you’re a signed Rangers player, you should be able to pull on the jersey no matter what game it is. It’s a ridiculous rule. You shouldn’t be telling anyone they need to name a European squad at the start of the season. Come on.”
Ex-Gers midfielder Ferguson added: “What if you collect a number of injuries? You’ve not got enough players to play with. It’s a crazy rule. If you’ve got a squad of 25 or 26, you should be allowed to use it. In any game.”
Needless
Clement is already fully aware of this needless rule, having been forced to alter his tactics for the reverse fixture against Sparta due to Yilmaz being ineligible, at a time when two other left-backs were also ruled out.
The injury situation is not so bad for this latest encounter, but Clement would have been tempted to add a youngster to his squad to compensate for the loss of John Souttar, Nico Raskin and possibly Scott Wright.
As it is, due to these UEFA regulations, he must wait until January – should the Light Blues still be in the competition at that point – to make any changes to his squad.
It could be argued that the rule is the same for every team, but that is besides the point. Why shouldn’t Clement be able to select Yilmaz, for example, for such an important game?
Those are the rules, though, and Rangers must simply abide by them while they are still in place.
In other Rangers news, chief-executive James Bisgrove has shared the financial fallout from the sacking of Beale.