Monday, August 23, 2021 at 5:39 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 17:46

Rangers intervenes strongly in response to a video that has been circulating on social media since Sunday. The reigning champion of Scotland announces that he has issued lifelong stadium bans to those involved, who sang racist slogans about Celtic player Kyogo Furuhashi in the video.

The video in question was taken on a bus full of Rangers supporters on their way to Sunday’s game against Ross County (2-4 win). Rangers’ supporters are targeting Furuhashi, a 26-year-old Japanese striker who was signed to Celtic this summer. Fans can be heard repeatedly chanting “Furuhashi ate my dog, ate my dog” or “Furuhashi ate my dog, ate my dog.”

The supporters also chanted ‘let’s all do the Kyogo’ or ‘let’s all do the Kyogo’, pulling their eyes to the side with their fingers. The exuberant fans clearly make an intoxicated impression. The footage was originally shared on Snapchat and quickly made it to other social media outlets such as Twitter, where the video has been viewed more than 130,000 times.

Rangers announced on Monday that the people involved in the incident have been identified and will all be banned from matches for the club for life. The supporters’ association of which the fans are members and with which they traveled to the match has also been banned and will no longer receive match tickets in the future.