James Tavernier is adamant that Rangers’ only option if Sparta Prague supporters want to jeer the Glasgow giants on Thursday in the Europa League is to turn down the volume.
This week’s matchup between the two teams promises to be a fierce battle in Group C. The Gers won’t be playing at Epet Arena for the first time in two years after Glen Kamara’s racist victimization during their previous visit.
The Finnish midfielder, who is currently at Leeds United, was the target of jeers from thousands of kids every time he touched the ball during the team’s 1-0 loss to Sparta. Six months prior, Ondrej Kudela of Slavia Prague had harassed him for his race.
After initially ordering the match to be played behind closed doors as punishment for discriminatory chants directed towards former Monaco player Aurélien Tchouaméni in August, UEFA allowed 10,000 under-14s to watch the Sparta vs. Rangers fixture in 2021.
However, this did not quiet the racist taunts from the spectators, and Kamara’s ire eventually got the better of him, and he was sent off during the game.
In preparation for Thursday’s trip back to Prague, which will mark Philippe Clement’s first European match as Rangers manager, Light Blues captain Tavernier has been reflecting on that encounter.
The Englishman said: It was different because it was a crowd full of kids,” expressing his hope that the 2021 game won’t be repeated. When you play, you don’t hear too much.
You were taken aback by it, and the fact that they had originally stated it would take place behind closed doors before deciding to invite those children in,
We have to go over there as a team, shut everything out, and attempt to win the game because I don’t think we can control what happens this time. Now that we are in 2023, we hope that the booing won’t happen again.
We are simply showing up to play football and want to entertain our supporters who are traveling from out of town. We hope not to hear the same thing, but we’ll have to wait and see since it’s not like this problem has disappeared from society.
