Angry Numan to appeal
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Your support makes all the difference.The Scottish Premier League will back Arthur Numan's efforts to overturn his Champions' League red card. The Dutchman is set to miss the crucial game against Monaco at Ibrox in a fortnight after being dismissed for a second bookable offence at Sturm Graz on Wednesday.
The Scottish Premier League will back Arthur Numan's efforts to overturn his Champions' League red card. The Dutchman is set to miss the crucial game against Monaco at Ibrox in a fortnight after being dismissed for a second bookable offence at Sturm Graz on Wednesday.
Numan was incensed by the decision after earning a first booking for re-entering the field of play despite the referee, Antonio Lopez, appearing to wave him back on to the pitch. Television replays seemed to support Numan's claims.
A 2-0 defeat in Austria left Rangers needing to win against Monaco in two weeks' time to be certain of reaching the next phase. Monaco must also win or face elimination.
Uefa, the governing body of European football, will decide on the appeal next week and Numan has said he will fly to its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, to plead his case. The SPL has also offered its services to help the Dutchman overturn what seems to have been a miscarriage of justice.
"If requested by the club, we will use our best officers to take any appropriate action," an SPL spokesman said yesterday. "However we have not been approached by the club at this time."
Numan said: "I was hit by a terrible tackle and thought I had broken my foot. When I had my treatment I looked at the referee for a signal and he looked me right in the eyes and made a sign to come on.
"I ran on, intercepted the ball and he came over and showed a yellow card. He said I should have come on at the half-way line and it was unsporting behaviour - but how can that be when he looked at me and signalled to come on?"
He added: "I went to see him at half-time and told him 'you've booked me for nothing - please remember this if I make a foul in the second half'. But when I made my first foul he came over, he hesitated and then he sent me off. I could not believe it."
Rangers will also be without the Dutch international defender Bert Konterman as he is also suspended after a booking on Wednesday.
The Monaco midfielder Rafael Marquez looks set to miss the Rangers game with a hip injury. The French club are already without Frank Jurietti and Martin Djetou, who were sent off in Wednesday's 4-2 defeat of Galatasary.
* Real Madrid have denied any knowledge of Rangers wanting to sign the England midfielder Steve McManaman on loan. The European champions say that they have not received an official approach from the Scottish club.
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