Ibrox uproar as Lyon ban fans and cancel 2,200 tickets for Europa League tie

Ibrox fans have been banned from Thursday’s Europa League tie in Lyon.

Over 3,000 fans have booked travel and accommodation for a show of post-Brexit strength but will now be denied access to the stadium.

Last month’s trip to Brondby was littered with numerous incidents of violence, now the French authorities have banned the People from attending Thursday’s dead rubber.

This afternoon the Ibrox club stated:

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.

Rest assured, we have made representations to UEFA, OL and the French authorities. However, regrettably, this situation is now out with our control. Nevertheless, we are duty bound to ask all supporters including corporate guests to not travel to France.

We appreciate the frustration of our support, and will work to ensure a refund for tickets is processed forthwith.

Prior to the match at Ibrox in September the Lyon team bus was heavily vandalised with Union Bears style grafiti.

Twice in 2019 UEFA closed part of Ibrox due to racist abuse from fans, this season BT Sport have had to make alternative broadcasting arrangements after certain pundits were refused media access to Ibrox.