Daily Record's Colin Duncan caught out as he tries to smear Rangers fans.

Last updated : 02 September 2010 By FF.com

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/scotland/news/2010/09/01/lithuanian-army-planed-on-alert-ahead-of-scotland-visit-for-euro-2012-qualifier-86908-22528441/

 

Kaunas municipality director Vygantas Guden (sic) said: "Scottish football fans can endanger the safety of the Kaunas people.

"City police leaders have warned us they could be flooded with problems so we must take every step to ensure to ensure law and order.

"The police have tightened up security following the trouble caused by Rangers supporters during their Champions League qualifying clash with FBK Kaunas in the city two years ago."

 

This seemed more than a little odd: there was no mention at the time of any trobule, and the Scottish press are normally more than willing to do so, and to exaggerate any minor problem.

So some of our users emailed the man in question.

You may be shocked to hear he didn't say anything of the sort.

 

Dear Sir,

I would like to thank you for the e-mail messages.

Referring to your letter, I would like to say that I never was interviewed by any journalist from Glasgow and never mentioned to any journalist that Scottish football fans pose danger to the safety of Kaunas people. It must be a misunderstanding, as the journalist of the Lithuanian daily "Lietuvos rytas" writes about the fact that we do not want the two big events - the football match, and the cultural event "Kauno naktys" ("Kaunas Nights") to coincide, as it is a big challenge for the city. Furthermore, I want to inform that Kaunas City Municipality cannot enlarge or tighten the police forces during football matches, as it is not in the scope of our capacity. Kaunas City Municipality cannot even organize football matches. There must have been misquotations in the newspapers about it.

I would like to stress that we very cordially welcome all foreign tourists to our city and we do our best to make them leave Kaunas with the best impressions and memories. I hope you will visit our city again!

Kind regards,

Vygantas Gudenas
Director of Kaunas City Municipal Administration

 

So there you have it: it looks like the Daily Record made it up.

The journalist, Colin Duncan, would appear to be a stranger to the truth in the matter.

Austin Barrett, the sports editor, is responsible for allowing an outrageous slur to be printed.

The Rangers should be taking these two to task.  An apology - and an explanation - must be forthcoming.