Rangers skewered over Ibrox fiasco as ex-EPL bigwig boils over and claims board will pay for having no pals

Ex Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness blasted the “disgraceful” Rangers board for the Ibrox Stadium delay shambles and branded them hypocrites after their criticism of Dundee last season following their twice-postponed Dens Park clash.

Wyness has experience in venue construction having been on the board of the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, plus having held CEO positions at Pittodrie and in the English Premier League with Aston Villa and Everton. And now he claims Light Blues chiefs should have been aware of the potential for the construction work in the Copland Road Stand to run over its targeted timeline for completion with steel being ordered from the Far East.

Wyness is convinced that the Rangers hierarchy would have known about the delay “for a while” and claimed their relationship with rival clubs might not help any bid to reverse fixtures - the Light Blues are due to play Motherwell and Ross County at home in August - as he said Rangers are “reaping what they sow”.

The 66-year-old also said ex chief executive James Bisgrove’s exit timing to move to the Saudi Pro League is convenient given the current situation, as Wyness said Murrayfield is the “only sensible option” to see Rangers through it. He told Football Insider: “Debacle is the right word. For this sort of problem to have happened is disgraceful from the board’s point of view.

“I’ve been involved in a number of stadium projects, I was also on the board of the building of the Hydro in Glasgow for seven years. They should have been aware of this, they should have had a risk register, they should have either had the right consultants around to let them know of these problems because there’s always going to be a risk in terms of overseas supplies coming in. That’s well known and in all these sorts of projects that is taken into account and that goes into your risk register and you make sure it happens.

“What is particularly rich in this situation was that Rangers were complaining about Dundee and their ground not being available to be played because it hadn’t drained properly and so Rangers made a very big noise about that in terms of a club not making its ground playable. Here we are now Rangers are the ones saying that themselves.

“Rangers have also got to count on the co-operation of other clubs in the league who want to reverse fixtures. Rangers haven’t created many friends in the Premiership. They are reaping what they sow in many ways. Someone has got to have known about this for a while and it’s a big one. I wouldn’t like to be sitting there trying to resolve this one for Rangers.

“Murrayfield seems to be the only sensible option. It’s in Edinburgh, not Glasgow – that’s the only key factor. There are a lot of issues around that, in terms of policing or transport. It could be three months, it could be six months – it could even be a whole season.

“We’ve seen Spurs move into Wembley and other clubs relocating, but that’s usually when clubs are rebuilding a stadium. In this case, it’s just about repairs. There’s no big gain at the end, it’s just a loss of revenue. I noticed the chief executive has gone to Saudi Arabia, and that could be quite clever timing on his part. Someone has got to have known about this for a while. I wouldn’t like to be the one left to sort this all out.”