Fergie dismisses Rangers crowd fears

Sir Alex Ferguson has played down fears of crowd trouble when Manchester United host Rangers in the Champions League next month.

The last time the Scottish giants were in Manchester, for the 2008 UEFA Cup final against Zenit St Petersburg at Old Trafford, there was widespread trouble when fans clashed with riot police after a big screen in the city centre broke down.

A total of 42 people were arrested after an estimated 100,000 Scottish supporters descended on the city for the match.

But Ferguson is sure there will be no repeat of those problems when the two sides meet on September 14.

Fergie said: "They were inviting fans down without tickets and we won’t do that. We’ll give Rangers a proper allocation. Rangers have fantastic supporters, although there is a bad element that every team has.

"There were some bad incidents [in 2008] that could have been avoided, but too many travelled without tickets.

"That won’t happen this time because Rangers will control where the tickets are going."

The 'Battle of Britain' against the Ibrox giants is a game that will be eagerly anticipated by both clubs, not least by former Rangers striker Ferguson.

He added: "There will be tremendous focus on those games because of my association with Rangers and the Scottish/English thing. It should be quite exciting."