Rangers launch blistering attack over Hampden aftermath

After yesterday's shameful scenes after the Scottish Cup final, Rangers have followed-up the statement released in the immediate aftermath with an incredible, and wholly agreeable, attack on the response by various parties following.

The full statement is available to read here and, in addition to the club's disbelief at the lack of any meaningful action so far from Hibernian and the Scottish FA, also have strong words for the Rod Petrie, the First Minister and two BBC employees.

"Rangers finds it incomprehensible that no one, either from within the Scottish FA or Hibernian Football Club, has condemned Hibernian’s supporters following the violent scenes at the end of yesterday’s Scottish Cup final when Rangers players and members of our backroom staff were physically and verbally assaulted. We have not even had the courtesy of any contact whatsoever from Hibernian to ask after the wellbeing of those who were attacked by their club’s supporters."

Rangers also demand a full independent investigation into the failures at Hampden which saw SIX Rangers players and staff attacked as they tried to leave the pitch at full-time.

During a post-match press conference Hibs Chairman Petrie, who also sits on the Scottish FA board, repeatedly refused to outright condemn the actions of thousands of his club's fans as disgraceful, claiming it was the result of "114 years of excuberance", and Rangers hit back, via a statement released on the club website.

"What unfolded on Saturday cannot and must not be put down to exuberance. That is a complete insult to Rangers, our supporters, and those individuals who were intimidated and attacked."

Stuart Cosgrove and Tom English were also criticised by the club for their reaction following the game. Despite what was broadcast across the world live there were immediate attempts by some to portray events as being the fault of Rangers supporters.

Certain media outlets have also attempted to distort reality.  In the case of the BBC this is, of course, not news. BBC employees, in particular Stuart Cosgrove, believe Rod Petrie’s comments to be ‘balanced’ and others speak of a ‘minority’ of Hibernian supporters. Another, Tom English, who was not even at the match, would prefer the authorities to focus on Rangers fans’ reaction. We will not endure this insult.

The statement also refuted any suggestions that Rangers supporters should take any share of blame for their part in the shameful scenes.

"We acknowledge that a tiny minority of Rangers fans also encroached on the pitch but only after having been faced with prolonged and severe provocation and in order to protect our players and officials who were being visibly attacked in front of them. Any club’s supporters would have done the same. This distressing and deeply disturbing episode would never have happened had Hibs fans behaved properly but as they swarmed across the pitch it became immediately obvious that the security procedures were inadequate and had failed.

First Minister of Scotland, and MSP for the club's Govan constituency, Nicola Sturgeon came under fire for tweeting congratulations to Hibs (her husband Peter Murrell is a Hibs fan), without passing any comment on the violence that a global audience watched at the conclusion of a show-piece Scottish sporting event.

It must also be said that it was not at all helpful to see leading members of the Scottish Government, including the First Minister whose parish is Govan, passing comment on social media without any attempt to condemn the behaviour of Hibernian’s fans. These failures are unbecoming of our elected representatives."

It's an incredibly strong statement from the Rangers board and it's now up to the relevant parties to punish as many of those involved as possible and make sure supporters and players alike are safe attending games in the future. Let's hope the Scottish FA are stronger on this than the SPFL were on Motherwell after last season's play-off final.