We take a tour round Ibrox Stadium, home of Glasgow Rangers

National World - LocalTV

We learn more about the Blue Room, Manager’s Room, Directors Box, Trophy Room, dressing rooms and pitch at Ibrox Stadium.

Transcript

00:00This is the famous Blue Room. This is where Rangers directors entertain the opposition

00:08directors and their guests on match days. Little has changed in here since 1928. Now

00:13you think about it, in 1928 we put a marble staircase into a football stadium and also

00:20the architect of the building, Archibald Leach, gave us an Italian marble fireplace. Stately

00:25homes wouldn't have had that. And the only changes in here are the murals on the wall

00:30and the framed photographs. Everything else is original. Just look at the workmanship

00:35on the ceiling alone. That's over 90 years old. And the panel work has not changed at

00:40all. So you had the guys who worked on the luxury liners in the Clyde worked in here

00:45as well, so you had the top craftsmen. The murals on the wall were undertaken by a lady

00:51called Senga Murray, massive Rangers fan. Now that is not a transfer onto that wall.

00:56It's hand-painted onto the wall and it took her six and a half weeks working for scaffolding.

01:02This is the River Clyde and the significance of the rowers on the Clyde are forefounding

01:07fathers were rowers before they became footballers. It's a place called Fletcher's Hawk, which

01:13is part of Glasgow Green. And obviously Ibrox today. Up here we have managers, chairmen

01:21and captains. We haven't added since 2011. We've had more to worry about in the last

01:2612 years than worrying about adding the murals on the wall. Although it says it's the manager's

01:31office, it's not been used in such for probably 25, 30 years. The present day players are

01:36never here. You get former players or maybe pop in, but you never really get the first

01:41game. On the way up, we passed a bust of Bill Struth, Britain's most successful football

01:47manager and never played football. You say, come on, must have been a junior player. Never

01:52played football. His background was athletics. So when he came from Clyde in 1920, that was

01:57his background. He was here 34 years, 18 championships, 10 Scottish Cups, 20 Glasgow Charity Cups,

02:0518 Glasgow Cups and 2 League Cups. And that excludes everything from 30, 90, 45, 41, everything.

02:13So he was the guy that set the standards at this club. He believed you should be a Rangers

02:18player 24-7. How you behaved outside the stadium was as important as how you behaved inside.

02:25We were the only club, now this is 100 years ago, that had two sets of kit. Nowadays there

02:30are hundreds of bits of kit. But it was all part of his mindset. You'll see a pristine

02:34pitch out there, not 100 years ago. Ploughed Field would be a better description. We always

02:39changed their white shorts at halftime. On a wet Monday day, we changed their tops. We're

02:44playing Hibs, we're already 2 or 3 up. They've sat in the away dressing room for 15, 20 minutes

02:50soaking. Rangers run out the second half with fresh kit. This is the Rangers director's

02:55box. It's the biggest director's box in Scotland. There's 101 seats in here. Little has changed

03:00in here since 1928. New seating, better seating, but it's the same wooden surround all the

03:07way around. And you think of the famous people who have come up these steps. The Queen, Prime

03:12Ministers, politicians, sports stars, pop stars. Rangers directors always sit in the

03:18top left-hand corner here. The seat on the second row at the end is always left free

03:24in case the Rangers manager gets sent to the stand. After the disaster of 71, we had to

03:29change the structure of the stadium and it went all over Europe to get a template to

03:33fit this ground and we copied Borussia Dortmund. So the three stands opposite this stand were

03:40copied from Borussia Dortmund. Now, the corners are filled in so it doesn't quite have the

03:44same effect, but it's obstruction-free stands. We're not allowed to touch this main stand,

03:50listed building. We can't take a brick out of the main stand at all. This is the Rangers

03:57trophy room. It was first opened in 1959-60. It used to be a players billiard and snooker

04:03room. The manager at the time was on holiday in Madrid, went to the Bernabeu, they had

04:08the trophy room, so should we. And that's how it opened. There isn't a major international

04:13side we haven't played at one time or another. You know, from the Milan's to Santos, we've

04:19played them at one time or another. Rangers were touring Europe in 1911 when some clubs

04:23were formed. Not only are pennants exchanged between the clubs, gifts are also exchanged.

04:29We as a club tend to give two crystal decanters and whisky. Scottish thing. But I'm doing

04:35a tour with this Bayern Munich fan, he said that we have a different gift in their museum.

04:40Rangers gave them a stag on a plinth. But we've played them a lot, so they maybe got

04:45sick and tired of getting the crystal decanters and the whisky. On the wall we have 62 league

04:52flags. We only count 55 of them. The ones that we won in the First World War and the

04:57Second World War we don't count. We get various items in exchange from crystal, porcelain,

05:04silver, but the two interests me. You know, Glasgow has a fairly violent history. We played

05:12Everton in the final of the British Championship in Dubai. You know what they gave us? A dagger.

05:18The main difference between the home dressing room and the away dressing room is the size

05:21of the pegs. You go, what's he talking about the size of the pegs? The pegs in here are

05:27six inches higher than they are in the home dressing room, and that was deliberate. This

05:32is 1928. Bill's truth was way ahead of his time. You come to play the famous Glasgow

05:37Rangers, the guy's going, I cannae reach these pegs. How big are these guys along the corridor?

05:43Think about it. 1928 is way ahead of his time. We've got two pictures of royalty in here.

05:50One of the Queen. I've been here 10 years and I was told that I'd been here since 54.

05:56That's not in fact correct. I've certainly been here the last 40, 45 years. I've spoken

06:02to players who played in the 50s, 60s and 70s and said there wasn't always a picture

06:06of the Queen, so I have to go on the basis of what I've been actually told, but certainly

06:11not been here since 54. The one of King Charles, that's the second one of King Charles that

06:16we've upped. This has been up maybe seven weeks. Prior to that it was up maybe a couple

06:22of, they've changed it to that one.

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