Rangers F.C.
-------------------------------------
Full name : Rangers Football Club
Nickname(s) : The Gers, Teddy Bears, Light Blues
Founded : 1872
Ground : Ibrox Stadium
(Capacity 51,082)
Chairman : Sir David Murray
Manager : Walter Smith
League : Scottish Premier League

Glasgow Rangers United F.C.
--------------------------------------------------------------------    Rangers Football Club are a football club from Glasgow, Scotland, who currently play in the Scottish Premier League. Rangers have won 51 league titles, a world record, and have won more major trophies than any football club in the world. The club are nicknamed The Teddy Bears, from the rhyming slang for Gers, which in turn is short for Rangers, and the fans are known to each other as "Bluenoses". The club's correct name is simply Rangers F.C., although they are sometimes referred to as Glasgow Rangers for European matches to avoid confusion.
   Rangers' players and fans today are multi-national and of various religions, although the club have traditionally been identified with and favoured the Protestant and Unionist community of Scotland. For most of their history, Rangers have enjoyed a fierce rivalry with their cross-city opponents Celtic, and the two are collectively known as the Old Firm.
   The club's home, the all-seated 51,082-capacity Ibrox Stadium in south-west Glasgow, has been accredited as one of UEFA's five-star stadia. The stadium was the first one in Scotland to be granted this accolade, which it now shares with Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium.

Stadium - Ibrox Stadium
--------------------------------------------------------------------    The club used a variety of grounds in Glasgow as a venue for home matches in the years between 1872 and 1899. The first was Flesher's Haugh, situated on Glasgow Green, followed by Burnbank in the Kelvinbridge area of the city, and then Kinning Park for ten years from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s. From February of the 1886-87 season, Cathkin Park was used until the first Ibrox Park, in the Ibrox area of south-west Glasgow, was inaugurated for the following season. Ibrox Stadium in its current incarnation was originally designed by the architect Archibald Leitch, a Rangers fan who also played a part in the design of, among others, Old Trafford in Manchester and Highbury in London. The stadium was inaugurated on December 30, 1899, and Rangers defeated Hearts 3-1 in the first match held there.
   Since 1899, two major disasters have taken place at the stadium. The first occurred in 1902 during a Scotland vs England international match, when a section of terracing collapsed, leading to the deaths of 26 people and over 500 injuries. The second disaster took place in 1971, during the traditional New Year's Day Old Firm match-up. As the crowd were leaving the match, barriers on the stairway to the rear of passageway 13 at the Copland End collapsed, causing a crush and resulting in the deaths of 66 people, with over 200 injuries. This led to a major redevelopment of Ibrox, overseen by the general manager Willie Waddell. After its conversion to an all-seater stadium, Ibrox was awarded UEFA five-star status.
   The stands in Ibrox are: The Bill Struth Main Stand (south; three tiers; the top one known as the Club Deck), Govan Stand (north; two tiers), and the Copland (east) and Broomloan (west) Stands (both two tiers), which are behind the goals. In addition to these, there are also the East and West Enclosures (in the lower tier of the Main Stand), and the two corners adjacent to the Govan Stand are filled in. As a result of work completed in the summer of 2006 to make the Bar 72 area situated in the Govan Stand, the total capacity of Ibrox is 51,082. On August 22 2006, Rangers announced that the Main Stand would be renamed The Bill Struth Main Stand in September 2006 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of their former manager, who served Rangers for 34 years. There are currently plans underway for a redevelopment of Ibrox stadium which could result in Ibrox being rebuilt as a 70,000 seated stadium - which would make it the second largest club football stadium in Britain after Old Trafford. The official Rangers Website was quoted as saying: "We are analysing three strategies which would enhance the development of the existing outline planning proposals for the Hinshelwood area to the south of the stadium. One of the strategies includes the total rebuilding of Ibrox Stadium while retaining the brick facade, the tradition and the integrity of the Bill Struth Main Stand".