The 2003–04 season was the 124th season of competitive football by Rangers.
Overview
Rangers played a total of 52 competitive matches during the 2003–04 season. The season ended trophyless. Due to the club's financial situation they had to resort to selling many top players. These included
Barry Ferguson
Barry Ferguson (born 2 February 1978) is a Scottish football coach, former player and pundit who was most recently the manager of Alloa Athletic.
Ferguson spent most of his playing career at Rangers, in two spells either side of a £7.5 mill ...
,
Lorenzo Amoruso
Lorenzo Pier Paolo Amoruso (born 28 June 1971) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defender for seven teams in Italy, Scotland, England, and San Marino during his footballing career, but is perhaps best known for his six ...
and
Neil McCann
Neil Doherty McCann (born 11 August 1974) is a Scottish football manager, pundit and former professional player who played as a left winger. His most recent role in football was a stint as the caretaker manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
...
, they also released high earners
Arthur Numan
Arthur Numan (born 14 December 1969) is a Dutch former professional footballer. He played as a left back and was a regular fixture in Netherlands national football team. He is currently the team manager for the Netherlands B squad and a scout fo ...
and
Bert Konterman
Bert Konterman (, born 14 January 1971) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defender.
Playing career
Born in Rouveen, Konterman's career began with the local amateur club ''SC Rouveen'', then went on to play for clubs in ...
.
Despite starting the season well with seven consecutive wins and topping the table, a 1–0 loss at home to Celtic in October saw Rangers season unravel. Inconsistent form and three old firm derby defeats saw Rangers fall behind Celtic in the title race and ended up finishing 17 points off top spot.
The
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Celtic. The
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
campaign also ended in defeat at the semi-final stage to Hibernian at Hampden Park, 4–3 on penalties.
In Europe Rangers managed to qualify for the group stages of the
2003–04 UEFA Champions League
The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League was the 12th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding from the European Cup in 1992, and the 49th tournament overall. The competition was won by ...
with a win over
F.C. Copenhagen
Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...
in the third qualifying round. They were drawn in the group stages alongside English Champions Manchester United, Stuttgart and Panathinaikos. Despite earning 4 points from the first two matches Rangers were to finish bottom of the group.