DICK Advocaat returned to Ibrox last night and claimed his former club have been seriously undermined by their own league ahead of next week's Uefa Cup final in Manchester.
The Zenit St Petersburg coach was back in Glasgow to watch Rangers defeat Motherwell in the first of seven games they have in an 18-day period. In typically forthright fashion, the little Dutchman could not resist directing some stinging criticism t
owards the SPL for refusing to postpone Rangers' next league fixture against Dundee United on Saturday ahead of the European showpiece four days later.
Advocaat's team are enjoying a clear run to the final with the Russian Premier League having called off all three domestic fixtures they were scheduled to fulfil between the second leg of their semi-final against Bayern Munich and the trip to Manchester.
"If you tell people in Russia or Holland about what has happened to Rangers, they'll say the Scottish competition is a 'Mickey Mouse' competition," said Advocaat.
"The egos at the SPL have to think how long it's going to be before a Scottish club comes back to the Uefa Cup final again. The decision is a farce, it is unbelievable.
"They have said the Dundee United game is not off, but I don't understand how they can say that. They certainly won't understand the decision in the rest of Europe.
"After our game against Bayern, I said maybe it would be a good idea to scrap our remaining league games before the final. On the night, the Russian league said they would think about and the next day they had done it for us.
"I don't think Walter Smith is afraid to play the games. He is just afraid, as I would be, that someone gets injured on Saturday and misses the final."
Advocaat feels the decision is evidence that the SPL remain as resistant to commonsense as he found them to be when he was in charge of Rangers from 1998 to 2000. "I have tried in the past with the SPL," he added. "I tried to give them ideas on a youth programme, but they just didn't want to listen to me.
"Rinus Michels, the former Dutch international coach, was quite famous and was given an invitation to come here and speak to them. He came over to talk, but they didn't listen to him either. He had ideas but they said 'no thanks'."
Looking towards the final, Advocaat believes his team will be forced to grind out a win over Smith's well-organised unit.
He said: "The team that is in the best shape will win. We have a different team than Rangers, we have more individuals while Rangers are a team who are well-organised and well-balanced.
"Rangers played better football and had better individuals when I was there.
"But now it is more about a team performance which is good, because I always say that the team performance is the most important thing."
Meanwhile, former Rangers player Gennaro Gattuso is a signing target for Bayern Munich, says the German club's president Franz Beckenbauer.
The Italian internationalist said last week that he would consider his future at AC Milan at the end of the season. Milan have struggled this term, lying fourth in Serie A having been knocked out of the Champions League as holders by Arsenal in the last 16.
"Is it true that Gattuso wants to leave Milan? I like him. He would be an important player for Bayern in the Champions League. Or rather he would be perfect," said Beckenbauer.
The full article contains 607 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
