Keith Wyness

Wed 26 March 2025 10:41, UK

Rangers fans have seen better times in recent weeks following the stunning victory over Celtic and reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League. 

Barry Ferguson’s side headed into the Old Firm derby on 16 March 16 points behind their fierce rivals in the Scottish Premiership table, but a late Hamza Igamane strike secured a 3-2 victory for his side at Celtic Park.

That came just days after the Ibrox club beat Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce on penalties to progress through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

The Glasgow giants will now face Athletic Bilbao next month for a place in the semi-finals of the competition.

However, Rangers were charged by Uefa last week after a handful of supporters displayed what it described as a “racist and/or discriminatory banner” against Fenerbahce.

Aberdeen’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Pittodrie between 2000 and 2004, had lengthy spells as the chief of Everton and Aston Villa and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – insisted he doesn’t believe the banner in question was offensive.

Rangers have confirmed they are in the process of issuing lifetime bans for those responsible for the banner after it was confirmed the Copland Stand will be shut for one game if there is a repeat offence in a European game within the next two years.

The club have also been fined £25,000 for the banner, while further fines of £5,000 and £3,755 have been handed out for the blocking of passageways inside the stadium and the throwing of objects at the same game. 

Rangers fans entitled to free speech after controversial incident

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness revealed he “feels sorry” for the Rangers fans following the punishments.

He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “I’ve got to say on this particular issue, I never thought I’d find myself saying this, but I feel very sorry for the Rangers fans for getting the sanction here.

“When I looked at the actual banner involved, I found it very hard to take offence to what was said. 

“Forgetting the content as such, it was a point of view rather than an actual foul-mouth statement or picking a particular person or a group of people to actually bad mouth.

“From that point of view, it was really stating a particular ideology as such and a way of thinking, so it was freedom of speech to me.

“It wasn’t using bad language and it wasn’t targeting a particular group as we’ve seen before in either race or other types of crimes.

“I feel that this one is just weird. It’s like if you don’t agree with what Fifa want or Uefa want, then you’re going to get fined.

“I think there should be a little bit of thought about this particular issue because it isn’t quite the normal banner that you normally get offended for.

“I can understand why it’s happened before, but in this case, I did have to think twice.” 

Rangers could be backed by £25m budget

Football Insider revealed on 21 March Rangers could be backed with a £20-25million budget in the summer transfer window.

A consortium backed by the 49ers Enterprises is understood to have agreed a deal in principle for a takeover at Ibrox. 

The prospective new owners plan to build the club’s revenue while allowing the manager and recruitment staff room to spend.

Rangers are set to take part in the Champions League qualifying rounds in 2025-26 if they can’t secure their automatic qualification by winning the Europa League this season.

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