A Seat at the Big Table

 

At some point this month it's almost certain we will be crowned the champions of Scotland for the 55th time our history. An absolutely remarkable achievement given the journey we as a club and a fanbase have been on over the last decade. There were times over the course of that journey you could be forgiven for thinking this day may never come, times such as losing to Raith Rovers in the Ramsdens Cup Final, seemingly drawing with Alloa every few weeks or more recently losing to plumbers from Luxembourg and the manager standing in a bush pointing at fans in a strange Rangers version of the "woman yelling at cat" meme.

That part of the journey is in the final furlong now though and us, the fans, are getting ready to celebrate it and release 10 years of pent up frustration in what will be one of the biggest celebrations in the history of football. I have seen a lot of discussion on social media of people planning to attend George Square and Ibrox. I won't be attending either, instead choosing to celebrate at home, but I won't be condemning those that do either. It's been a long, tough 10 years and it has been an even longer, tougher past year with all the lockdowns so I'm not in a position to tell anyone how they should and shouldn't celebrate.

However one thing that hasn't been lost so much as been slightly less considered amongst all the rising joy is that next season we will finally be back at the big boy table of European football. We have qualified for the competition that we all but started. The Champions League. Hopefully we will be allowed back into the stadium by then so we can hear that special Champions League played over the the tannoy system before the game.

There is of course no guarantee that we will make the group stages at the moment, but given our impressive record in the Europa League with Steven Gerrard Et Al at the helm you would certainly fancy our chances. We seem to have progressed past the days of losing to teams like Levski Sofia, AEK Athens and FBK Kaunas in the early qualifying rounds of Europe. Three consecutive Europa League group stages, of which we've made the last 16 twice in a row, has given us a confidence to hold our own in Europe that has been missing from a Rangers team for decades, barring of course that wonderful 2008 run.

This season alone we are currently unbeaten in Europe having played 11 games, despite facing European heavy weights like Galatasaray and Benfica as well as being the first team to win a game away to Standard Liege in Europe in six years. Most recently knocking out Royal Antwerp 9-5 on aggregate, a team that had beaten Tottenham Hotspurs in the group stages.

That run added to the unbeaten run in the league gives this season a very 1992/93 feel about it, which coincidently was the first year the European Cup became the tournament known today as the Champions League.

It's mind blowing to think there is a generation of Rangers fans that have never experienced our club playing in the tournament we helped bring to the world. It also amazes me and doesn't surprise me in equal measures that many of our fanbase don't know how big a factor we are in the history of the Champions League. Not only are we one of the clubs represented by the 8 stars in the Champions League logo (along with AC Milan, Club Brugge, CSKA Moscow, IFK Goteborg, Marseille, Porto & PSV Eindhoven) but the new format was the brain child of (at the time) Rangers Director Campbell Ogilvie.

In the late 80's/early 90's there was a lot of discussion and push for a European super league, mainly from former AC Milan owner and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The world of football was changing and TV revenue was becoming a hard driver in the business side of the sport. A number of Europe's top clubs were becoming frustrated at the lack of income from the European Cup and were beginning to talk about the opportunities a European super League could provide them for revenue. This had UEFA worried. Step up Campbell Ogilvie. It was his idea to introduce a group stage style tournament to replace the all knock-out style of competition that the European Cup was running at the time. This would guarantee the larger clubs more European games and in turn would generate more TV revenue.

It was actually trialled in the 91/92 season while still being called the European Cup before officially launching as the Champions League in the 92/93 season. Lucky for us as we went out quite unceremoniously in the qualifiers to Sparta Prague in the 91/92 season.

The 1992/93 season was not only special for bringing us this first taste Champions League but it also provided us with the Battle of Britain tie against Leeds United in the qualifiers. That's a match up I for one have watched hundreds of times, my uncle had a video tape of the matches when I was little and I would often watch them on a morning when I stayed at his, reliving that wonderful tie. 

Very few in England expected us to qualify against their champions, which perhaps shows our neighbours arrogance because at the time we had a legitimate claim to be the biggest club in Britain and we backed that up by putting them out of the qualifiers and coming just short of making the final. A final that we very may well have been in if it wasn't for some well published alternative tactics by Marseille, which I for one will never be able to forgive them for.

Alas TV money has changed the game a great deal since then and we can no longer be expected to compete with our neighbours off the field, thanks in part to a former SPL chief-exec who put our game back decades by declining a very good SKY TV deal in favour of threatening them with SPLTV and then subsequently signing a poor deal with Setanta and as such we've been turning up to the table with a begging bowl ever since and our current chief-exec hasn't exactly shown he is much better than Roger the todger.

92/93 was a great campaign that saw us win a treble, be within a hairsbreadth of the first ever Champions League final and go on a 44 game unbeaten run in all competitions. It was a great time to be a Rangers fan... and at this moment it feels very much like that again. With yesterdays news that the Scottish Cup will take place this year we're still on for a treble, though that would require a Europa League cup win, and have lost only 1 game all season.

No matter how this season ends though this team have brought the exciting times back to Ibrox and next year we will take our place back at the big boys table and I for one can not wait.

The Rambling Ger