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in the world to win more than 50 league titles. Rangers have won 107 trophies in total, making them one of the world's most sucessful football clubs. Rangers are the first side from Scotland to reach the last 16 of the Champions League. The club's home is the 50,411 all-seated Ibrox Stadium in south west Glasgow. The first team colours are royal blue shirts, white shorts with black and red socks. the underwear tends to be rather stained however, and the club is considering sponsorship by Tampax, as they are at present going through a sticky period.

Rangers players today are multicultural, although the club has traditionally been identified with the Protestant community of Glasgow. For most of its history Rangers has enjoyed a fierce rivalry with crosstown opponents Celtic who traditionally drew much of their support from Glasgow's Catholic community. Between them, the two clubs dominate Scottish football and are collectively known as the Old Firm.

The club's correct name is simply 'Rangers' although it is sometimes incorrectly called 'Glasgow Rangers' and are sometimes referred to as the Huns, or Orcs.

 This frequently happens with English commentators seeking to distinguish between them and other similarly named clubs particularly Queens Park Rangers.  The club is nicknamed 'The Teddy Bears' (from the rhyming slang for Gers - -off match finished 2-2, the title was shared. Rangers had to wait until 1884 to taste their first Scottish Cup success after losing to Vale of Leven in 1877 and 1879 but finally lifted the trophy for the first time after a 3-1 win over Celtic. Rangers even came close to winning the English FA Cup in 1887 when they lost to Aston Villa in the semi-final. Rangers ended the nineteenth century with further Scottish cup wins 1897 and 1898 and a League championship win in 1899 during which they won every one of their 18 league matches. Rangers formally became a business company in 1899 and match secretary William Wilton was appointed as the clubs first manager when he left Blackburn juniours for the pricelly some of ten bob. The club also appointed its first board of directors under the chairmanship of James Henderson. Rangers were well on their way to becoming one of Scotland's top two clubs.

not reverse the decline. Morale amongst players and supporters plummeted amidst credible rumours of players unrest and dressing room divides. A worsening financial position exacerbated the gathering gloom. The club failed to win a major competition in the 2000-2001 season. Having continued in similar fashion in season 2001-2002, Advocaat resigned as manager and took up a General Manager position, which he would later leave after only 11 months. Alex McLeish was the surprising appointment as the new Rangers manager in December 2001.

Advocaat's tenure at Ibrox had been a paradoxical one. On one hand, the quality of football at times had been peerless. Advocaat spearheaded the building of Murray Park - a £14m training complex at Auchenhowie which was viewed as essential if the club was to compete with its European peers in nurturing home-gown talent and developing players. On the other hand, Advocaat's man-managership was at times lamentable, and many argued that he had squandered a real opportunity to establish Rangers as consistent European competitors. With the club deep in financial difficulty, there was no realistic prospect of boosting its fortunes through further expensive player acquisitions. The challenge of restoring the club to supremacy in Scotland looked to be an unenviable one for Alex McLeish.

Under Big Eck

McLeish's appointment was met with a lukewarm reaction amongst many Rangers supporters. Some viewed it as symptomatic of the down-sizing of the club's ambitions after the spendthrift years of Advocaat. Others saw in McLeish a manager whose mixed fortunes at Hibernian and Motherwell left him ill-equipped to cope with the demands of managing a high-profile club like Rangers. A few, remembering McLeish's days as centre-half colossus in Alex Ferguson's great Aberdeen side of the early 1980s, questioned whether someone lacking any obvious 'bluenose' credentials could revitalise a club faced, for the first time in decades, with a concerted challenge from a seemingly rejuvenated Celtic. the club thrives on its sectarianism and Loyalist roots, drawing massive support from the slacker jawed amongst the religious divide.

Such concerns were quickly allayed, however, as McLeish's Rangers began to display a spiritedness that had been sorely lacking in Advocaat's final seasons. Cup successes in McLeish's first season, 2001-2002, saw a renewed sense of optimism that Rangers could regain the ascendancy claimed fleetingly by Celtic under the managership of Martin O'Neill. A 3-2 defeat of Celtic in the season's climactic Scottish Cup final , orchestrated by Barry Ferguson's sublime midfield promptings, reinforced the view that Rangers could once more gain the pre-eminence enjoyed for almost all of the period since Graeme Souness's appointment as manager in 1986.

McLeish's first full season as manager, 2002-2003 saw the club fulfil this sense of promise. Another victory over Celtic, this time in the League Cup , provided the first leg of the club's latest treble. Rangers' fiftieth championship was secured on a dramatic last day of the league season, with victory over Dunfermline denying Celtic the title on goal difference . Victory over Dundee in the Scottish Cup final saw a triumphant finale to the season .

The successes of McLeish's initial period as manager proved difficult to sustain. The club's parlous financial position, in the wake of the profligacy of the Advocaat era, meant a period of relative austerity. Wage bills were slashed as the club embarked on an extensive cost-cutting programme in an attempt to stabilise a mushrooming (and unsustainable) debt. Confronted with a squad of well-paid but ageing players largely assembled by Advocaat, McLeish was compelled to re-build without the luxury of the generous transfer kitty enjoyed by his predecessors over the preceding two decades.

McLeish was required to rebuild not through the high-profile and often audacious signings of the Souness,way for more signings including Thomas Buffel and the return of former captain Barry Ferguson. Those signings helped Rangers win the Scottish League Cup, with victory over Motherwell . The league, however, appeared to have been lost, as Rangers handed a five-point lead to Celtic, with only four games of the season remaining. Faced with the need to win a final match at Hibernian, and hope that Celtic would fail to win away at Fir Park, Rangers secured a fifty-first championship as Motherwell overcame a 1-0 deficit with two goals in the last two minutes .

Season 2005 - 2006 got off to a bad start, with Rangers only winning 6 league games out of the first 16, and being knocked out of the League Cup by arch-rivals Celtic. Speculation over Alex McLeish's future has been rife and it is said that he has been given until early December to save his job. Although with a draw against Italian giants Inter Milan, McLeish became the first manager to guide a Scottish team past the group stages of the Champion's League. However there was still significant pressure on McLeish from fans because of the club's poor position in the Premier League table. It was widely expected that McLeish would leave the club on 8 December 2005 after a press conference was arranged by Chairman David Murray. However Murray stated that McLeish would remain in charge indefinitely (BBC) but did concede that domestic results would need to improve.

Famous Players

DANIEL PRODAN SEB ROZENTHAL THAT GUY OH COME YOU THE ONE

Team Managers

1983]] - 1986)

• John Greig (1978 - 1983)
• Graeme Souness (1986 - 1991)
• Walter Smith (1991 - 1998)
• Dick Advocaat (1998 - 2001)
• Alex McLeish (2001 - present)

Current Squad

Goalkeepers

1.	Stefan Klos	German
22.	Alan McGregor	(on loan at Dunfermline Athletic)
25.	Ronald Waterreus	Dutch
	Lee Robinson	English

Defenders

2.	Fernando Ricksen	Dutch
3.	Olivier Bernard
5.	Marvin Andrews	Trinidadian
12.	Robert Malcolm
14.	Sotirios Kyrgiakos	Greek
15.	Zurab Khizanishvili	(on loan at Blackburn Rovers)
16.	Julien Rodriguez
18.	Jose-Karl Pierre-Fanfan
20.	Alan Hutton
37.	Gary McKenzie
32.	Brian McLean	Northern Irish (on loan at Motherwell)
36.	Jukka Santala	Finnish (on loan at Partick Thistle)
34.	Steven Smith
51.	Alan Lowing

Midfielders

6.	Barry Ferguson
7.	Brahim Hemdani
8.	Alex Rae
11.	Gavin Rae
17.	Chris Burke
20.	Charlie Adam	(on loan at St Mirren)
24.	Ian Murray
31.	Hamed Namouchi	Tunisia
33.	Marco Kalenga

Strikers

4.	Thomas Buffel	belgium
9.	Dado Pršo	croatia
10.	Nacho Novo	Spain
19.	Steven Thompson
21.	Francis Jeffers	England (on loan from Charlton Athletic)
23.	Federico Nieto	Argentina (on loan from Club Almagro)
26.	Peter Løvenkrands	Denmark
39.	Robert Davidson
44.	Ross McCormack
50.	Dany N'Guessan

Non-Playing Staff

Club Records

Record home attendance: 118,567 .v. Celtic, January, 1939

Record victory: 13-0 .v. Possilpark, Scottish Cup, October, 1877

Record league victory: 10-0 .v. Hibernian, December, 1898

Record defeat: 2-10 .v. Airdrieonians, 1886

Record league defeat: 0-6 Dumbarton, May, 1892

Record league cup defeat: 1-7 Celtic, October, 1957

Record appearances: John Greig, 755, 1960-1978

Record league appearances: Sandy Archibald, 513, 1917-1934

Record Scottish Cup appearances: Alec Smith, 74

Record league cup appearances: John Greig, 121

Record European appearances: John Greig, 64

Record goalscorer: Ally McCoist, 355 goals, 1983-1998

Most goals in one season: Sam English, 44 goals, 1931/1932

Most league goals: Ally McCoist, 251 goals

Most Scottish Cup goals: Jimmy Fleming, 44 goals

Most League Cup goals: Ally McCoist, 54 goals

Most European goals: Ally McCoist, 21 goals

Most capped player: Terry Butcher, 77 caps for England

Highest transfer fee received: Giovanni Van Bronkhorst, £8.5m, Arsenal, 2001

Highest transfer fee paid: Tore André Flo, £12.5m, Chelsea, 2000

Greatest Team

The following team was voted as the greatest ever Rangers team at an awards ceremony in 1999. Thousands of Rangers fans voted.

• Andy Goram (Goalkeeper)
• John Greig (Defender)
• Sandy Jardine (Defender)
• Terry Butcher (Defender)
• Richard Gough (Defender)
• Jim Baxter (Midfielder)
• Paul Gascoigne (Midfielder)
• Davie Cooper (Midfielder)
• Brian Laudrup (Midfielder)
• Mark Hateley (striker)
• Ally McCoist (striker)

Famous Rangers fans

SANTA CLAUS HOWARD OFF HALIFAX THE DOG FROM FRASIER MIGHTY JOE YOUNG PAPA SHANGO THE HOODED CLAW THE POPE Fat Boab the builder

Honours

Rangers have the all-time worldwide lead for domestic league championships, racking up their 51st title in 2005. They also share the all-time worldwide lead for domestic doubles with Northern Ireland club Linfield, with 17 as of 2004-05 and hold the record for domestic trebles, with 7 so far.

Rangers won their 100th major trophy in 2000, the first club in the world to reach that milestone. First club to banish a no catholic signing policy. Only club ever to have a no catholic signing policy, and get away with it for decades.'* European Cup Winners Cup Champions 1972 (1)

• Scottish League Champions 1891, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005 (51)
• Scottish Cup Winners 1894, 1897, 1898, 1903, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 (31)
• Scottish League Cup Winners 1946, 1948, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005 (24)
• Emergency War League 1940 (1)
• Southern League 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946 (6)
• Milk Cup (Premier) 1984, 1992. (Junior) 1985 3
• Drybrough Cup 1979
• Tennents' Sixes 1984, 1989

See also

• Category:Rangers F.C. - Other articles on Rangers F.C.
• Category:Rangers F.C. footballers - Footballers who have played for Rangers F.C.
• Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame
• Rangers by season:

  v t e Rangers F.C. seasons

  1874–75 1875–76 1876–77 1877–78 1878–79 1879–80 1880–81 1881–82 1882–83 1883–84 1884–85 1885–86 1886–87 1887–88 1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25

  External link

  • Official website
  • Fans forums
  • Fan Site
  • BBC Sport Rangers portal