Rangers to appeal Whittaker ban

15 August 2011 17:58
Rangers manager Ally McCoist is to appeal Steven Whittaker's "very harsh" three-match European ban for his red card against Malmo.[LNB] The sanctions were confirmed to Rangers by UEFA, and the Scottish champions are set to lodge an appeal against the decision ahead of Monday night's midnight deadline.[LNB]McCoist told the club's official website: "We're definitely appealing as I think the length of ban is very harsh indeed."[LNB]Whittaker was dismissed after just 18 minutes of the second leg of Rangers' Champions League qualifier in Sweden for throwing the ball at opponent Jimmy Durmaz, as Rangers were held to a 1-1 draw on the night and crashed out of the competition with a 2-1 aggregate defeat.[LNB]A broken toe means Whittaker has not played since his sending off and the full-back would have been unlikely to feature in Thursday's Europa League play-off against Maribor in any case, regardless of an automatic one-match suspension.[LNB]However, his ban is also set to extend to the second leg at Ibrox and the first match of the group stages, should the Light Blues overcome the Slovenians.[LNB]McCoist had no complaints about the red card but felt the subsequent punishment was too severe.[LNB]He added: "We've no problems about the sending off and we've spoken about that.[LNB]"It was a mistake and a gross error of judgement.[LNB]"With that said, the boy went down holding his face when the ball never hit him there and he made a lot of what happened.[LNB]"Steven was rightly punished for what he did but we feel banning him for that length of time is too much."[LNB]McCoist was already facing a defensive problem in the coming games.[LNB]Kyle Bartley limped off with a groin injury in the first half of Rangers' 2-0 SPL win at Inverness on Saturday and is a doubt for the Maribor trip.[LNB]Lee McCulloch (knee) and David Weir (hamstring) both missed the Inverness game with only the former in with a chance of making the Slovenian leg, and Sasa Papac is suspended after being booked in both Malmo games.[LNB]Rangers have sold Madjid Bougherra to Qatari club Lekhwiya since he was also sent off in Sweden, and the Ibrox club last week failed with a bid to land Anderlecht defender Roland Juhasz.[LNB]And a deal to bring Carlos Cuellar back to Ibrox from Aston Villa has been shelved because of the Spaniard's fitness problems.[LNB]Rangers could turn to another former player, Danny Wilson, to help ease their problems at the back after both McCoist and the Liverpool centre-back admitted they would be interested in a loan deal.[LNB]

Source: Team_Talk