Rangers
What records have been set by Rangers Football Club?
When was Rangers Football Club founded?
What major accidents have occurred at Ibrox Stadium?
What was the outcome of Rangersâ financial troubles in 2012?
Who became the manager of Rangers in May 2018?
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Rangers, Scottish professional football (soccer) club based in the city of Glasgow. The club is considered the most successful team in the world in terms of domestic league championships won, with more than 50 titles. It is known for its fierce rivalry with its Glaswegian neighbor, Celtic.
History
The club was founded in 1872 and plays in white shorts and blue shirts (though blue-and-white striped shirts were worn in the early 1880s), which accounts for its nickname âthe Light Blues.â For the first 25 years of the clubâs existence, Rangers played in a variety of locations around Glasgow before funds were raised to build Ibrox Stadium, which opened in 1899. There have been two major stadium tragedies at Ibrox, the first coming in 1902 when a wooden stand collapsed, causing 25 deaths and more than 500 injuries. The second, in 1971, saw 66 people die and more than 140 injured when stairway barriers collapsed as fans were exiting the stadium.
Between 1899 and 1954 the club was managed by just two men, William Wilton and Bill Struth. Under Struth, who led the team for 34 seasons, Rangers won 18 league championships as well as 10 Scottish Cups. Rangersâ 54 total Scottish league championshipsâincluding one shared with Dumbarton FC in 1891âis more than any other team. The club has also won the Scottish Cup 33 times overall. Despite great success domestically, the club has done less well abroad, with the 1972 European Cup Winnersâ Cup title its only notable international championship.
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Rivalry with Celtic
Rangers first played Celtic in 1888, and games between the two teams (collectively known as the âOld Firmâ) are fiercely contested matches, which sometimes cross over into fan violence. The intense rivalry between the fans of the two clubs is often sectarian in nature, with Rangers historically perceived as a Protestant team and Celtic drawing its fans from Glasgowâs Roman Catholic Irish immigrant community.
Financial troubles and liquidation
In 2012 Rangers entered administration because of disputes over unpaid taxes and was liquidated a few months later, following years of financial mismanagement and a tax evasion investigation by British authorities. English businessman Charles Green led a consortium that purchased the clubâs assets and business in June 2012, but the restructured Rangers was unable to directly gain membership to the top-tier Scottish Premier League (SPL). Instead, it was granted associate membership in the Scottish Football League (SFL), which at the time represented the lower tiers of football in Scotland, and competed in the fourth-tier league in the 2012â13 season.
Undefeated 2020â21 title and new ownership
The club quickly worked its way back up the football hierarchy, earning promotion to the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL; new body formed after the SPL and SFL merged in 2013) for the 2016â17 season. In May 2018 Rangers made a splash by bringing on former legendary Liverpool FC player Steven Gerrard as manager. In the 2020â21 season, under Gerrardâs management, Rangers won its first SPFL title in a decade and 55th overall, incidentally preventing Celtic from winning a record-breaking 10th consecutive championship. Rangers finished the season undefeated, scoring a league-record 102 points (32 wins, 6 draws) in 38 matches.
Gerrard left the club during the 2021â22 season and was replaced as manager by former Dutch footballer Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who had played for Rangers from the 1998â99 to 2000â01 seasons. He led the team to the 2022 UEFA Europa League final, the first time Rangers had reached this stage of the competition in more than a decade, and helped the club secure qualification for the 2022â23 UEFA Champions League (UCL), Europeâs top continental club competition. However, the following season, Rangers recorded the worst campaign by any club in the UCLâs history, suffering elimination in the first group stage after losing all six of its matches, leading to van Bronckhorstâs dismissal in November 2022. Since then, the club has replaced its manager six times, with former German football player Danny Röhl the latest to be appointed head coach in October 2025.
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In May 2025 a U.S.-based consortium led by health care entrepreneur Andrew Cavenagh and the owners of the NFLâs San Francisco 49ers team bought a 51 percent controlling interest in Rangers, with Cavenagh becoming the clubâs chairman after the takeover.