Glasgow Rangers of Scotland youngsters, Calvin Bassey and Dapo Mebude have received strong backing from the club over a ban slammed on them and three of their colleagues on account of breaching coronavirus protocol, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although it was the Scottish Premiership club that initially punished Bassey, Mebude and their other errant colleagues, Rangers have now appealed against six-match bans slammed on all the players by the Scotland Football Association for breaching COVID-19 regulations.
The Gers’ appeal comes after their first-team trio Nathan Patterson, Bongani Zungu and Bassey, as well as the academy duo of Brian Kinnear and Mebude, who is on loan at Queen of the South, were charged by the SFA and attended a preliminary hearing on March 25.
Four of the matches the matches they were barred from are immediate and two suspended until end of this season, but it means Bassey, Mebude and the other players will miss Rangers’ games against Cove Rangers (April 4), Hibernian (April 11), St Johnstone (April 21) and the Scottish Cup fourth round.
The quintet already faced internal investigation by the Ibrox club after the incident and they were fined, with the club’s coach, Steven Gerrard saying they were all told in clear terms what was expected of them after they were allowed to rejoin his squad following self-isolation.
Patterson and Zungu have since both featured as Rangers were crowned Scottish top-flight champions for a 55th time, while Bassey has been an unused substitute, but the ban by SFA could send them all back into he cooler.
