A proposed European pre-season friendly between Rangers and Hansa Rostock has been reportedly knocked back by the German Football Association (DFB).
A friendly with the Bundesliga.3 side has been denied on “safety reasons”, report liga3-online. It’s not the first time the passionate German side have been refused a friendly with one of Europe’s most prominent clubs either.
Last year, the DFB also denied FC Basel from visiting Hansa Rostock and their 29,000 capacity Osteestadion. Hansa Rostock CEO Robert Marien has expressed his disappointment.
“I can confirm that the DFB sees the security is not guaranteed,” said Marien, as quoted in the liga3 report. “We can not begin to understand.”
This will come as a big blow to Rangers fans who have always travelled in their droves to Germany for friendlies such as this.
The Ibrox side took 8000 fans to Leipzig in January last year for a glamour friendly with RB Leipzig.
And with this friendly originally intended for the summer, it’d surely see similar numbers head across to the city of Rostock to cheer on the bears. That’s maybe why the German football governing body has denied the friendly from going ahead.
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There is clearly a great sense of disappointment on the side of Hansa Rostock over all of this. There will be a great sense of disappointment amongst Rangers fans too.
The club will now turn their attention elsewhere for pre-season, where we could see a very different Rangers side indeed.
