Mobirise
free html templates

RANGERS TRAINING CENTRE

Rangers’ £14 million, state-of-the-art training centre includes seven full size pitches, two half size practice areas/pitches, a synthetic indoor pitch and the training centre housed within a 38 acre site at Auchenhowie, Milngavie.

Opened in July, 2001, the centre is divided into three distinct sections – an administration wing, a professional wing and a youth wing.

The youth and professional wings have their own reception area, dining room, changing rooms, kit store and lecture room, whilst facilities such as the gym, medical suite and indoor pitch are shared between the professional and youth set ups.

Every piece of equipment in the £150,000 state-of-the-art gym is linked to the medical centre’s computer system to staff to monitor every player. Each one has an individual code which activates a personalised fitness programme designed to meet their unique requirements.

The gym includes an isokinetic machine, which allows players to work within the constraints of an injury by testing muscle strength and reaction during a workout.

The Rangers Training Centre also includes a 6 x 3 metre hydrotherapy pool with an angled, moveable floor and a series of massage jets and currents that allows a range of rehabilitation exercises to take place.

The 60 x 40 metre indoor synthetic pitch allows players to train whatever the weather and is laid on a bed of sand and tiny rubber crumbs designed to cushion the surface and prevent injuries. This revolutionary new surface closely mimics real grass and is used by other top clubs such as Ajax.

In addition to developing elite athletes, the Rangers Training Centre is also used to benefit the wider community in association with Sportscotland.
Mobirise

Prior to the construction of the club's own training facility, the first team trained at several locations across Glasgow including Ibrox Stadium, Bellahouston Park and the West of Scotland cricket ground. A dedicated training complex was first proposed by the then manager Dick Advocaat upon his arrival at the club in June 1998. It was officially opened on 4 July 2001 by Advocaat and then-chairman David Murray, after whom it was originally named as Murray Park. The total cost of the complex was estimated at around £14 million.

On 14 June 2012, after the Rangers Administration, the training facility was sold along with other Rangers' assets, in a deal worth £5.5m, to a consortium led by Charles Green.

Τhe use of the name Murray Park significantly reduced after the club was sold to Craig Whyte in 2011. Moreover, after the liquidation of the company running the club and its assets, many fans held David Murray partly or wholly responsible and so began calling the facility Auchenhowie (after the geographic area where it is based). In June 2012, the then Rangers Chief executive Charles Green stated he would ask Rangers season ticket holders to vote on renaming the club's training ground. Green proposed that it could be renamed the Moses McNeil Academy or the Davie Cooper Academy after former Rangers players. In June 2016, then chairman Dave King revisited the issue of the renaming of Murray Park and asked Rangers fans to suggest an alternative name.

In June 2018, the facility was officially renamed The Hummel Training Centre as part of a sponsorship deal with Danish sportswear company Hummel.

Mobirise

In February 2016, the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund revealed plans to provide £450,000 to build a 264-seater stand at Murray Park. Planning permission was granted in December 2017 for the improvements, which included the stand and further dressing room facilities as well as a classroom area and additional floodlighting. Work began in January 2018 and was completed around 18 months later; the stand was officially opened on 2 August 2019.

The site covers a size of thirty-eight acres (over fifteen hectares). It is divided into three areas: the administration wing, the professional wing for the first team and the youth development wing. The professional and youth wings have their own separate receptions, dining areas, changing rooms, kit stores and lecture rooms. Both share facilities including the gym, medical suite and the indoor synthetic pitch. Outside there are six full-size pitches along with two half-sized, and a practice area. Two of the full-sized and one half-sized pitch are used only by the first team, these have under-soil heating, the others are used by the youth sides.

The gym equipment, costing £150,000, is linked to a computer system which can activate a personalised fitness programme for individual players. The gym also houses an iso-kinetic machine, which allows players to work out despite being injured by testing muscle strength and reactions. There is a hydrotherapy pool that has an angled, movable floor and a series of massage jets and currents that allows a range of rehabilitation exercises to take place. There is also a media editing suite costing £50,000 where a video analyst will video each training session. The footage is used in order to conduct tactical lessons in the lecture room afterwards.

Rangers training centre is often used by visiting club and national teams playing in Scotland. For example, the South Korea national football team, then managed by Advocaat, hired the facilities for their training before the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In February 2015, Inter Milan trained at the centre after Rangers agreed to allow the Italians use of the facility prior to a UEFA Europa League match against Celtic. This was not the first time Rangers offered support to a club that were to play city rivals Celtic, having made a similar offer to Juventus in 2013 and Blackburn Rovers (who were managed by Graeme Souness) in 2002. 

The facility nowdays is a regular home venue for competitive matches played by Rangers' women's team, the club's male under-18 team and some fixtures of the reserve team.

© Copyright 2020 - Hellenic Rangers Supporters Club - All Rights Reserved