The Ibrox icon was clued in on the acrimony elsewhere and recalled a long-term gripe about the club he loves
Ally McCoist
Flabbergasted Ally McCoist has recalled a long-term Rangers fixture gripe amid the fury which has engulfed French football after Lens publicly denounced PSG’s appeal to rearrange their potential title decider.
The Ibrox icon was clued in on the acrimony in Ligue 1 after shock troops Lens told the UCL holders where to go ahead of the clash on April 11 – sandwiched between both legs of their Champions League quarter finals with Liverpool—but league chiefs will make the final decision.
And Lens’ simmering injustice proved the launchpad for McCoist to reel off his own anger about the team he loves. The 62-year-old tuned radio listeners into Rangers’ manic run to close out the 2007/08 season, which included six games across three competitions after the Ibrox side reached the UEFA Cup Final before being denied by Zenit St Petersburg and falling short in an epic title race with Celtic.
And a long-term complaint for McCoist surfaced when he was told about the running battle between the top two in France.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the Rangers hero said: “Something similar happened to us, with Rangers, back in the day. We got to the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester against Zenit. Zenit got three weeks off from the Russian Football Federation and the bosses who run Scottish football made us, you’ll think I’m joking here, something like six games in 14 days. I can see the argument here from both sides.”
Former Rangers supremo David Murray stewed over the call not to further extend the season in 2008, stating: “Throughout the world people will laugh at this decision in disbelief, and none more so than in Russia as their own association have done everything they can to assist FC Zenit St Petersburg,”
Former Rangers chairman David Murray in 1993(Image: Mirrorpix)
Lens are holding nothing back with their searing take on the call to potentially move back their blockbuster showdown with PSG.
A statement read:: “It appears to us that a worrying sentiment is taking hold: that of a French league gradually being relegated to the status of a mere variable to accommodate the European ambitions of certain parties,” Lens said in a statement posted on X.
“This is a peculiar conception of sporting fairness, one that is difficult to find parallels with in other major continental competitions. Changing the date of this match today would mean that Lens would be deprived of competition for 15 days, followed by matches every three days
“A schedule that corresponds neither to the one established at the start of the season, nor to the resources of a club that could absorb this type of new constraint without consequence.”
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