Determined Borussia Dortmund are weighing up legal action to try to get fans back into their stadium, which could offer Rangers fans fresh hope of attending their Europa League showdown in Germany.
Authorities in the region refused to relax strict restrictions this week which means that Dortmund – who have the biggest stadium in the country with their 80,000-capacity Westfalenstadion – are still only allowed a maximum of just 750 fans in the ground.
The next meeting about the easing of restrictions in Germany is now not scheduled to take place until February 16 - the day before Rangers play the first leg in Dortmund.
And furious Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke is now considering legal action against the decision of their regional government of the North Rhine-Westphalia ahead of the visit of the Premiership champions.
He said: "We are now examining legal steps to challenge the restriction of just 750 fans.
"Almost three-quarters of Germans are vaccinated. For months there have been sufficient vaccination offers for every single citizen in this country. We now know a lot more about Omicron.
"But we allow almost 90 percent of the capacity indoors and only 750 people in outdoor stadiums. People are locked out in the open air. That's not proportionate, that's not science either, nobody understands that anymore.
"There were always complaints that football was given special rights in Germany. Just the opposite is the case now.. Football falls victim to symbolic politics. It is bitter that after two years the politicians are only thinking about bans and not also about different possibilities and logical decisions."
Rangers have handed Dortmund an allocation of 2,700 for the second leg at Ibrox, but it seems unlikely there will be any official allocation for the first leg, unless Dortmund can win a legal battle.
