Rangers' Europa League suspension risk laid bare as hardline ref dishes out whopping 140 bookings THIS SEASON

Gio van Bronckhorst insists Rangers ' will field their strongest side in the Europa League clash with Red Star Belgrade.

But the Ibrox boss might have a rethink after looking at whistler Istvan Kovacs record.

The whistler has become known throughout Europe for his firm officiating style - which is bad news for four stars going into the second leg in Serbia.

Alfredo Morelos, Joe Aribo, Fashion Sakala and John Lundstram would all miss the next round of the competition if they are shown a yellow card.

And this season it's been something Romanian ref Kovacs has been all too happy to provide.

Across the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, World Cup qualifiers and Romanian League a whopping 140 bookings have been handed out by the FIFA official.

Into the bargain Kovacs has thrown in six red cards for good measure, with a staggering 155 players given their marching orders by the hardline official throughout his 15-year career.

He'll be familiar to Celtic fans having been the man in the middle last season for their 4-1 mauling at the hands of Sparta Prague in the Europa League.

However, he dished out a relatively conservative four bookings at Celtic Park, with Ryan Christie the only Parkhead star being hauled up by Kovacs.

Despite this, the Rangers boss is determined to start his regular XI despite holding a convincing 3-0 aggregate lead.

He said ahead of the clash: "Obviously, when you are playing so many games in Europe you will always have players on one yellow card away from a suspension but that’s for every team but it won’t affect our approach to selecting the team.

"I think also the players in the game don’t have to play in a different way, we just go there with the strongest 11 possible and