BBC Scotland have hit back at a far reaching interview by Stewart Robertson in which the Ibrox MD hit out at the broadcaster’s coverage of his club.
There has been a long running stand off between both sides since the summer of 2015 when Chris McLaughlin reported fans being arrested for singing sectarian songs in a match at Easter Road.
When reporting privileges were withdrawn for McLaughlin the BBC responded by refusing to attend matches and media conferences.
Latest on the ongoing dispute between Rangers and the BBC coming up on Reporting Scotland from 1830. pic.twitter.com/ceES1lSZXb
— Chris McLaughlin (@BBCchrismclaug) February 19, 2019
The state broadcaster is an official partner for the SFA and SPFL but haven’t provided any commentary on matches at Ibrox although they have provided full coverage of away matches.
In an in-house interview Robertson made various accusations about the broadcaster, claiming that the SFA used ‘Trial by Sportscene’ and that an ‘inordinate amount of time’ was spent on incidents involving Alfredo Morelos relating to the December Glasgow derby. The Ibrox striker didn’t receive any disciplinary action despite ‘Trial by Sportscene’.
Last night BBC Scotland stated: “We have offered to return to Ibrox to provide commentary, as per our contracted rights, while we try to find a permanent solution to the overall dispute, but Rangers have said this is unacceptable.
“We will continue to speak to both Rangers and the SPFL about the situation as we believe it’s in the best interest of our audiences to restore the ability to bring commentaries from all SPFL grounds.”
This season the BBC have added Neil McCann, Lee McCulloch and Kenny Miller to their roster of pundits which already included Billy Dodds, Alex Rae, Steven Thompson, Derek Ferguson and Kris Boyd.
