Rangers’ Europa League Qualifying Round 1 tie with St. Joseph’s of Gibraltar will now take place on Tuesday the 9th of July at 5 pm BST.
The match was moved forward due to the fact two Gibraltar sides have qualified for the competition and only the Victoria Stadium is suitable for European matches.
The other Gibraltar side, Europa, will face Legia Warsaw in the Victoria Stadium on Thursday night.
It now means Rangers will kick-off their competitive campaign two days earlier than planned.
“We spoke with representatives of Rangers and UEFA and the decision has been made to play the match in Gibraltar next Tuesday, July 9,” said Club sporting director John Paul Hendrick [the Daily Record].
“Rangers needed some time to make arrangements so we agreed to this date. We have offered 960 tickets which Red Imps gave to Celtic a few years back.
“The possibility of playing both games at Ibrox was discarded and we believe we have come up with the best solution to keep everyone happy.
“The Island Games start this weekend and will be going on for a week so we had to consider that. The police will have a hard time but there’s not much more we can do – we have to play the game.”
MORE RANGERS STORIES
This tie should be routine enough for a club of Rangers’ stature, but we have seen what can happen if we do not approach these matches correctly.
Fans will be hoping that the players bring home a big enough advantage going into the return leg over a week later.
Tickets are already on sale for the Ibrox leg on the 18th of July, with Rangers issuing a rallying call for supporters to come and snap them up.
