Rangers fans fume as Benfica travel blow for Europa League showdown in Lisbon announced

Rangers' supporter liason officer has been inundated with miffed fans after announcing there will be no official club flight to Lisbon for their Europa League clash with Benfica.

Philippe Clement's side head to Portugal for the first leg of their last 16 tie on March 7 before returning to Glasgow for the second a week later on March 14. That second leg was subject to controversy over the weekend when Rangers released a statement saying they were disappointed on behalf of the fans at UEFA's decision to enforce a 5.45pm kickoff - feeling it should have been 8pm to allow punters to finish work in good time for the game.

Now there's been another inconvenience for some fans who had hoped to travel to Lisbon for the first leg. A social media statement from the club's SLO reads: "Following dialogue with our travel partner, it has been confirmed that an official club flight for Benfica away is sadly not feasible. This is due to aircraft availability and what would be a subsequently unreasonable cost implication for supporters."

It's raised a few eyebrows among fans with one replying: "No one was expecting a club trip as it’s not a hard place to get to. You tweet they're looking into doing a trip, to then come back and say there’s no trip because it’s not feasible, in February? To Portugal? As well saying nothing until something actually confirmed?"

Another responded: "Hardly the height of a holiday season so why cant they find any planes to book ? Poor show that." One fan branded it 'an embarrassing state of affairs,' while another wrote: "This is too common. What’s the point in a travel partner who can’t arrange travel? If it’s unwritten ‘policy’ that you’re reluctant to do it, then just say that there won’t ever be official