Nicola Sturgeon is set to make a major announcement on Tuesday which could give Rangers the go-ahead to sell out Ibrox for next week’s Champions League Third Qualifying Round second leg against Malmö.
After over a year without fans at Ibrox, Bears have started to return in recent weeks.
A measly allocation of 2000 was granted for a high-profile pre-season clash with Arsenal on 17 July but gains were made for subsequent friendlies against Brighton and Real Madrid before 23,000 took in Saturday’s Premiership opener against Livingston.
Back in June, national clinical director Jason Leitch suggested that stadia could be full from 10 August if Scotland moved away from Level 0 and scrapped legal restrictions on schedule on 9 August [Daily Record].
If social distancing was brought to an end, there would be no need to limit attendance and Ibrox could be full again for the first time since a Europa League Last 16 first-leg defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in March 2020.
However, it’s not guaranteed that the 9 August date will be stuck to and even if it is, there may be conditions to the changes or regional exceptions.
All will be revealed in an announcement at around 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.
The 23,000 supporters inside Ibrox on Saturday created a brilliant atmosphere, but clearly, it would be a major boost if that number was more than doubled for the Malmö second leg.
The Gers will need to perform well in Sweden on Tuesday night if they are to still be in with a chance when proceedings move to Govan, where a lot of strong European teams have struggled in recent seasons.
Porto, Feyenoord and Braga were all downed in front of near-capacity crowds while Galatasaray, Standard Liege and Royal Antwerp were all beaten in behind closed doors matches.
In other news, a Rangers hero has come out of retirement and landed an international management job.
