Disappointed Gio van Bronckhorst says he wouldn't gamble with his players' fitness in order to get their second half against Sunderland played. Rangers are in Portugal for a pre-season training camp and kicked off against the English Championship side yesterday. Aside from a brief signal failure for fans streaming at home, the first half in the Algarve went without a hitch, with Luke O'Nien's strike separating the two teams at the break.
It all began to go haywire when they sides returned from the half-time interval, though, with a floodlight failure within the Estadio Municipal de Albufeira delaying kick-off. 15 minutes passed, then half an hour, and it was almost 10pm local time when the two clubs decided to call it quits.
Van Bronckhorst admits he is disappointed they couldn't get the game back underway. But he admits it would have been far too risky to force his players to get going again after a break of more than an hour. He told Rangers Review : "You want to play a game. You want to give minutes to all your players to be stronger. Once the lights broke, you wait and you keep waiting, you get the news that they don't have much hope that the lights will be working properly.
"By that point it was like one hour. Too much risk with players who come only in their first week, so a hour hour break and play on was not ideal. We took the decision to not play.
"There were other aspects, we had to go and get the bus, we don't have much hope that it will be working. At first we said we'd wait 15 minutes, then 30, then 45. You want to get your players strong but you also want to keep them fresh and not injured. after such a long delay it's too risky"
Meanwhile Rangers have offered refunds to fans who bought tickets as well as those who purchased streams via the club. They said in a statement: "Tonight's match in Portugal was abandoned at half time due to a stadium floodlight issue.
"Neither Rangers or Sunderland were responsible for the stadium operations and the floodlight failure. However, Rangers appreciate the support of our loyal fans and the support they give the team everywhere we go which means everything to us.
"Rangers will refund the ticket cost to all Rangers ticket holders and our supporters that purchased the match on RangersTV. Thanks for your continued support."
Van Bronckhorst is hard at work with sporting director Ross Wilson to add new signings to his squad - with Rabbi Matondo expected to be the next addition. He added: “Ross is busy. Of course we want to add more players to our squad and he is busy talking with players, talking with agents and clubs.
“Now we have so many people involved in those talks. I am hopeful that we can add more players in the coming week. We are busy. We have several players that we are watching and talking with. When it is 100 per cent we will communicate.”
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