Revealed: What happened inside Ibrox after Rangers' game with Slavia Prague ended in acrimony over alleged abuse

The last 16 game, which the home team lost 2-0 to crash out of the competition, ended in ugly scenes on the park after an alleged racist comment was made towards Glen Kamara.

Events continued long after the final whistle.

Here, Matthew describes what he witnessed from his vantage point in the press box high in the main stand.

TEMPERS flared on the park towards the end of Rangers match with Slavia Prague in the Europa League at Ibrox last night after a racist remark was allegedly directed towards Glen Kamara by rival player Ondrej Kudela.

Bongani Zungu, the Rangers substitute who was standing next to his team mate Kamara when Kudela cupped his hands and whispered in his opponent’s ear, reacted immediately when he heard what had been said and urged Israeli match official Orel Grinfeeld to take action.

Connor Goldson, the home team’s captain and centre half, rushed across and when Kamara informed the defender what had been said to him he charged after Kudela.

The former Brighton player suffered online abuse when he took the knee in a show of support to the Black Lives Matter movement in a pre-season friendly in France back in July – something he later admitted had left him hurt.

He was clearly livid.

A shoving match between both teams ensued and it took the referee, who booked Goldson, some time to restore order.

The game, which was in its closing stages by that point, eventually resumed and the visitors, who had been leading 2-0 on the night against opponents who had been reduced to nine men with the ordering off of Kemar Roofe and Leon Balogun, finished triumphant and booked their place in the quarter-finals.

They celebrated at the final whistle – but that was by no means an end to the acrimony.

After bumping fists with his opposite number Jindrich Trprsovsky, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard took to the field and exchanged a few choice words with Kudela as he was walking off the park.

There were more a few more verbals between rival players as they headed up the tunnel and some members of the Rangers team made a beeline for the match official to make their unhappiness clear.

But it was nothing too bad. Things appeared to have calmed down a little. Or so it seemed.

That was still not an end to the ill-feeling.

Some time after the game had finished, Gerrard, accompanied by Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson, suddenly appeared on the touchline again and spent several minutes locked in a heated conversation in his technical area with a number of Slavia officials.

He later revealed he had been incensed when they attempted to deny that Kudela had made a derogatory remark about Kamara’s race – and was seething when they branded the Finnish internationalist and his fellow Rangers players LIARS.

“The disappointing thing for me is there is people trying to defend the opposition player,” he said when he sat down to do his post-match press conference over an hour after Rangers had exited the competition.

“Their people, trying to defend it, trying to defend him, calling us liars. That’s for other people to deal with. All I say now is that I stand by Glen Kamara 100 per cent.”

But the discussions, which Gerrard had hoped would “defuse” simmering tensions between the newly-crowned Scottish champions and their Czech counterparts, didn’t succeed in bringing an end to the rancour either.

Kamara, who was still wearing his strip and boots, then came out of the tunnel closely followed by several other people.

He was clearly still deeply distressed by what had happened. There were raised voices and anguished cries. He was closely pursued by a rather burly member of the Slavia staff. It looked all set to kick off. But attempts were made by those present to restore order.

Once again, Gerrard arrived and intervened. He put his arms around Kamara’s shoulders, tried to comfort his player and led him hurriedly away from the flashpoint.

The pair walked down the touchline together, onto the park and eventually out of the corner of the stadium between the Bill Struth Main Stand and the Copland Road Stand.

Slavia later released a statement dismissing the “imaginary” allegations of racist abuse and claiming that Kamara had attacked Kudela “with fists” in the presence of Gerrard.

The defender was later seen boarding the team bus on Edmiston Drive with no visible signs of any attack.  

Gerrard, who had asked his midfielder if he wanted to come off the pitch during the game, questioned why Kudela would feel the need to cup his hands and whisper in Kamara’s ear if all he said, as he later claimed, to his rival was ‘you f****** guy’.

He has expressed hope that UEFA, European football’s governing body, will now investigate and take action.

“All I can confirm is that my player tells me he was racially abused,” he said.

“I tried to call Glen over during the game, he didn’t come over. I was going to ask him did he want to leave the pitch and I would have backed him whatever his decision was, but the payers stayed on the pitch. That was their decision and the game came to a conclusion.

“This will be taken out of my hands now and dealt with by UEFA. I just hope with all my heart that people deal with it because that situation was not normal.

“If I wanted to say something to you on a football pitch why do I need to cover my mouth and go to the ear. The game’s done in terms of the result at the time, we have nine men they are 2-0 up there is absolutely no need for it.

“I am proud of all my players tonight showing solidarity and from the top of this club to the bottom we stand with the players. This situation is over to UEFA now. I just hope it doesn’t get brushed under the carpet.”