Rangers v Dundee: Tannadice block will infuriate fans amid SPFL issue with Dundee United switch
Rangers have twice geared up to face Dundee in the past month only to see their SPFL fixture called off a matter of hours before kick off.
There is already plenty of outrage and recriminations flying around as a result of the Dens Park pitch being unable to safely stage the game, leading Don Robertson to twice postpone the game, and the reason for the most obvious alternative venue is virtually guaranteed to infuriate some even more.
Dark Blues club secretary Eric Drysdale blamed changing weather patterns after the rearranged midweek game didn’t go ahead this week, as he promised investment was on the way for summer work on the playing surface.
Yet throughout the dispute over blame for the issues at Dens Park excuses over the condition of the pitch are regularly undercut by Dundee United’s Tannadice, which is a brief walk away and hasn’t suffered the same issues with rain.
Since the Tangerines are on the road between 30 March and 20 April it seemed a logical solution to move the increasingly-controversial Rangers clash there, especially once the team has travelled.
Yet according to the Daily Record (10 April), that option has been all but ruled out thanks to the SPFL requirement for VAR to be in effect for every game, and with Dundee United currently in the Scottish Championship the technology is not in place there.
More Rangers VAR controversy amid Dens Park problems
Since fury at the influence of the video assistant has become a near-constant feature of football in Scotland, rightly or wrongly, the fact that it is also the barrier preventing an otherwise fairly obvious solution to a growing problem will no doubt only enrage VAR detractors even more.
The split is due after this weekend’s fixtures, and with rain again scheduled for next Wednesday’s third attempt to stage Rangers and Dundee at Dens Park the situation is becomingly increasingly awkward, not least when the tightest title race in years between the Light Blues at Celtic is in progress.
Plenty of fans want VAR gone as it is, and while criticism of the system often deserves to go towards those using it, it won’t win any new supporters if it is proving a hindrance even when it isn’t present.
Michael Stewart has been getting increasingly furious with video assistant interventions for some time, with controversy in back-to-back Rangers fixtures against Hibs and Celtic seeing him trash its influence and call for it to be scrapped entirely.
So the BBC Scotland pundit is very likely to be in the camp of those who will see VAR blocking the most obvious solution to the recent Dens Park dispute as proof of just its latest crime.
Dundee vs Rangers has to be played sooner or later, and given the stage of the season the issue is effecting there is a question over whether later is even possible, so the league is going to have to have a far better contingency plan in place for the third attempt at it than they did the first or second.
In other Rangers news, the club’s ongoing failure to solve a contract issue robbed the squad of a boost ahead of the Old Firm derby.
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