French authorities in late U-turn over Lyon tickets for Rangers fans
Away supporters will now be allowed inside the ground for Thursday's Europa League clash
French authorities have made a late U-turn with Rangers fans now allowed to attend means Thursday’s Europa League match in Lyon.
The Ibrox club announced on Monday that their initial 2,200 allocation had been cancelled because a local 'festival of light' was set to take up policing resource and make it impossible to accommodate away supporters.
However, the Ibrox side say they've now been left in an 'almost possible position' with the French authorities changing their minds less than 24 hours on and just two days ahead of the game.
Rangers have said their corporate flight was cancelled yesterday after the announcement and now cannot be rearranged.
A club statement read: “We regret to inform our travelling support that, within the last hour, we have been notified by the French Minister of the Interior, that away fans including corporate guests will not be admitted on Thursday night to the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, France.
“We understand that there is a “festival of light” planned in the city which will test the policing resource and city infrastructure. As you are aware, we previously underlined to our support that the local authorities in France were being intransigent and initially unwilling to engage.
“However, only late last week they agreed that we could have 2200 supporters admitted. The decision to reverse this is bemusing, and extremely frustrating, given the short notice. It beggars belief that 3 days after that decision was taken and 3 days before the match is due to be played, it is our supporters who are now going to be left out of pocket by this decision by the French interior minister.
“We empathise with the feeling of supporters, who have made travel plans months in advance. Furthermore, we were allocated tickets several weeks ago, which adds further confusion to the most recent decision to not admit our fans.