Rangers fans are raging over major Police Scotland decision | OneFootball

Rangers fans are understandably upset with the scheduling farce which led to Sunday’s home fixture with St Johnstone being shoved from the usual afternoon to a staggering 20:00 hours kick off in the evening.

Fans are raging at the multiple inconveniences this kick off time has caused, but many are wondering why it’s on at this time.

The reason is simple, the Great Scottish Run takes place today starting this morning and finishing… well… when it finishes.

It will require resources to police, and obviously that means Rangers can’t be on at the same time, for one other further reason:

The run will go practically right through the heart of Ibrox, going past Edmiston Drive but going through Paisley Road West so Rangers fans conveying there en-masse at the same time would be a logistical nightmare.

So Rangers’ match was delayed to allow the run to complete and gridlock to settle down.

And of course there’s another major complication; while First Bus have put on some extra transport to try to accommodate this, for those who don’t know, Ibrox subway is closed from 18:12 hours onwards on a Sunday, meaning the Subway Loyal (nor anyone else) can access those transport facilities.

While the buses are available extra on that night, it’s still a hell of a complication anyway, and may well lead overall to a bit of a lower attendance.

We can’t actually remember the last Sunday evening kick off at Ibrox – we’d imagine there hasn’t been one in many, many years, if not even decades. Sundays are usually no later than 15:00, leaving time at the end for the subway.

So yes, this one is a bit of a logistical shambles, and we do wonder why this one was shoehorned into this day rather than another. But it is what it is.

TV coverage is also key, this is a Premier Sports broadcast, so the broadcaster always has to get their quota.

It’s messy, but it’s the way it is.