Rangers face having the book thrown at them by Uefa after they were charged with improper conduct for their fans' violent behaviour during Wednesday night's Champions League tie with Unirea Urziceni.
Fighting broke out between supporters and stewards at half-time, with security staff using pepper spray and CS gas on fans who had rushed to the front of the stand in the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest.
The club’s chief executive Martin Bain demanded a full-scale investigation into why the trouble was sparked, with travelling supporters citing heavy-handedness from stewards and a lack of turnstiles as the catalyst for the fighting.
Uefa though confirmed on Thursday that Rangers will be charged for the scenes that overshadowed the 1-1 result in Romania as they prepare to receive the match delegate's report.
With punishments from a fine to games being played behind closed doors meted, the Ibrox club's existing disciplinary case file in Nyon could spell big trouble.
After being fined £13,300 for supporters' discriminatory chanting and £9,000 for attacking their opponent's team bus during an away game against Villarreal in 2006, Uefa warned that the club were being closely monitored on the future conduct of their fans.
Just one year later, Rangers were fined £8,280 on an improper conduct charge for fans' behaviour at an away Uefa Cup game against Osasuna.
With their past record likely to be taken into account, a far heavier punishment is bound to be considered when the Control and Disciplinary Body meet to discuss the case later this month.
Recent fan-related incidents involving other clubs have resulted in far greater consequences than those dished out to the Scottish club in the past and there are fears that their penalty could be even greater.
In August, FC Dinamo Bucharest had the result of their Europa League fixture with FC Slovan Liberec amended to a 3-0 defeat because the misbehaviour of their fans caused the abandonment of the match.
The Romanians were also told to play their subsequent three home European fixtures behind closed doors and were given a 50,000 euros fine.
And just six days ago, Croatian side NK Dinamo Zagreb were deducted three points from their Europa League points tally for crowd violence in their match against FC Timisoara on October 1, although they have since launched an appeal.
Last updated: 05 November 2009, 17:56
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