Rangers withdraw BBC co-operation over 'repeated difficulties'

Glasgow Rangers FC has withdrawn "all co-operation" with the BBC over what the Scottish club said is a "pre-determined negative attitude towards" it this season from the corporation.

The Ibrox side said that several instances of reporting on Rangers by the BBC had been "neither accurate or fair", while there have been "repeated difficulties" with the broadcaster this season.

Rangers also said that a BBC Scotland documentary on the club, due to air this Thursday, was "little more than a prejudiced muckraking exercise".

At the start of the Scottish football season in July, the editor of BBC Six and Ten O'Clock News apologised to Rangers over an "inappropriate edit" in a report on the cost of policing Old Firm matches.

In the same month, Rangers manager Ally McCoist banned the BBC from interviews and press conferences after accusing the corporation of editing footage to suggest he was making light of football violence.

A statement posted on the Rangers website said that today's decision to impose the BBC boycott was taken "very reluctantly", but the club felt that it had been "left with no other option".

"The club was forced earlier in the season to suspend co-operation with the BBC over its serious misrepresentation of the club manager's position on violence and sectarianism," said Rangers.

"There have also been other instances where the BBC's reporting on the club's affairs has been neither accurate or fair.

"Furthermore, over the last few weeks the BBC has been involved in making a documentary about the club which appears to be little more than a prejudiced muckraking exercise. Efforts to ensure that reporting of the club's affairs should be balanced and fair appear to have been in vain.

"The club believes that the BBC has on a number of occasions now demonstrated a pre-determined negative attitude towards Rangers and its fans, and its journalism has fallen well short of acceptable standards.

"The decision to end co-operation with the BBC has been taken very reluctantly but the club feels it has been left with no other option."

The BBC has not yet commented on the ban.

Rangers' decision will come as a blow to the corporation, which has only recently seen the end to its seven-year media boycott by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson over an unflattering documentary aired by the BBC in 2004.