Rangers fans heading to Lyon face the prospect of being forced to quarantine for at least eight days on their return to Scotland under new tougher Covid measures proposed by Nicola Sturgeon.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side are due to fly out to France for their final Europa League Group A clash a week on Thursday.
But a major obstacle could be placed in front of the Ibrox outfit’s travelling legions if Prime Minister Boris Johnson decides to back calls for stricter travel restrictions in the wake of the emergence of the omicron variant.
Sturgeon made her plea this morning after confirming six cases of the mutant strain had been detected in Scotland.
Johnson announced on Saturday evening that anyone entering the UK would be forced to self-isolate until they received a negative result from a day-two test.
But after joining forces with Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, Sturgeon has called for the PM to also introduce a day-eight test in a bid to halt omicron’s spread.
The First Minister said: “We believe this measure would be more effective in identifying cases of this variant, which result from overseas travel and therefore help us prevent further community transmission from imported cases.
“Now, as we know from earlier stages of the pandemic with so many people travelling to Scotland, and indeed to Wales via airports in England, anything less than a four-nations approach to requirements like this will be ineffective, so we hope that a four-nations agreement can be reached.
“A four-nations approach obviously requires the four-nations to discuss these issues together and hear the best advice available.
“So Mark Drakeford and I have also called on the Prime Minister today to immediately convene a COBRA meeting with representation from each nation to discuss what additional steps we might have to consider and how we work together to tackle this new risk.”
Rangers - who have already qualified for the knock-out stages thanks to last week’s win over Sparta Prague - were expecting to receive around 3000 tickets for next week’s dead-rubber against Peter Bosz’s unbeaten section winners.
But fans, many of whom have already booked flights and hotels, were already sweating after Ibrox chiefs announced last week they have still not been given confirmation of their exact allocation for the December 9 showdown.
Lyon bosses have held off announcing how many briefs they will hand over as they wait for French government chiefs to announce their own measures to curb the country’s fifth spike in infections.
But that was before the emergence of omicron, which health experts fear could be more transmissible than the previous strains.
Rangers said in a statement last Wednesday: “We are still awaiting confirmation of our away allocation for our upcoming Europa League match against Lyon.
“We appreciated frustrations at the lack of clarity on this fixture and appreciate the impact it can have on travel plans.
“We greatly value our travelling support and we have requested that we receive clarity as soon as possible.”
