RANGERS can confirm the club has accepted an invitation to participate in a new, prestigious European club tournament, ‘Trophée Veolia’, hosted by Olympique Lyonnais.
This will provide an opportunity to face high-quality opposition as the next step in pre-season.
The Light Blues will return to Lyon, a city we have enjoyed success in before, having famously enjoyed a 3-0 victory at the former Stade de Gerland in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League.
Furthermore, Rangers will also play newly-crowned EFL League One champions Coventry City at Ibrox. This fixture will provide high-quality opposition as the final pre-season fixture prior to beginning the SPFL Premiership season.
Rangers and the Sky Blues have much in common, having shared some Scottish internationals including Colin Stein, Colin Hendry and John Fleck. Moreover, our Assistant Manager Gary McAllister had spells as both a player and manager at Coventry as well as Ryan Kent, who played on loan with them during the 2015/16 season.
Fixtures are confirmed as follows, timings in BST:
Thursday 16th July - Lyon v Rangers 7:45pm, Groupama Stadium Lyon
Saturday 18th July - Nice v Rangers 5:15pm, Groupama Stadium Lyon
Wednesday 22nd July, Rangers v Motherwell, 6pm, Ibrox.
Saturday 25th July - Rangers v Coventry City 5.15pm, Ibrox
Rangers’ Sporting Director, Ross Wilson commented: “We are delighted to have received this invitation from Olympique Lyonnais and look forward to travelling to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
"We will step up our preparations against the high quality opposition of OL and Nice in the two games in France before returning to Glasgow, ready to play at Ibrox. “I was delighted to see Coventry City win the League One title under Mark Robins. Mark and I are good friends from working together in the past and he is a man whose work deserves success. He will have his team well-prepared for the fixture.
"We also look forward to welcoming Motherwell to Ibrox as part of both club’s preparations for European competition early in the season.
"All of these games will undoubtedly enhance our preparations ahead of the league season opener and the UEFA Europa League game against Bayer Leverkusen in August.”
First Team Manager, Steven Gerrard, was also pleased to confirm our pre-season programme, explaining: “We are happy to confirm our pre season fixtures which provides a level of certainty going into the next phase of preparations for the beginning of the SPFL season.
“It is pleasing that we have been able to secure high-quality opponents in France which will familiarise us with playing on the continent again in advance of our Europa League tie.
"Furthermore, the fixtures at Ibrox will allow us to test ourselves against British opposition and give us the experience playing behind closed doors.”
In-line with advice from the French Government and the football authorities, we strongly advise that our supporters do not travel to Lyon. The tournament organisers have confirmed that Rangers supporters will be unable to access the stadium.
The Trophée Veolia will be broadcast exclusively live on Premier Sports in the UK. Rangers games will be broadcast live on RangersTV in all countries outside of the UK and Ireland.
As part of Rangers’ commitment to provide an enhanced RangersTV package to season ticket holders, we are pleased to announce that 20/21 season ticket holders and unlimited international RTV subscribers will be able to access live streams of both Ibrox games on RangersTV at no extra cost.
A pay-per-view option will be offered on RangersTV for other international supporters with Premier Sport broadcasting both Ibrox Coventry City and Motherwell fixtures live in the UK to any non-season ticket holders.
Commercial and Marketing Director, James Bisgrove commented: “For our season ticket holders, we’re pleased to confirm complimentary RangersTV live coverage of the two Ibrox pre-season games versus Coventry City and Motherwell, this being a further demonstration of the added value we are looking to create and a preview of the enhancements we will make through the virtual match passes.
“We have ambitious plans for the club’s enhanced RangersTV coverage for league matches at Ibrox and I’m pleased these are progressing well. We will be in a position to provide further details with supporters in the coming weeks.”