What is holding up Mikey Moore's Rangers debut?

Luton Town v Tottenham Hotspur - Pre-Season Friendly
Luton Town v Tottenham Hotspur - Pre-Season Friendly | Harry Murphy - Danehouse/GettyImages

Rangers defeated Czech side Viktoria Plzen at Ibrox last night in the first leg of our UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie.

On the wing we started with Oliver Antman, with the Finnish international impressing on his debut – less than 36 hours after joining the club.

The winger won the penalty for the second goal and provided the pinpoint cross to assist the third scored by Djeidi Gassama.

The former Sheffield Wednesday man also impressed on the opposite flank, scoring a double to bring his Rangers tally to four in four.

However, there is one new Ibrox wide man who is yet to debut for Russell Martin’s side.

Mikey Moore arrived on loan from English Premier League side Spurs last week, with a lot of hype around the teenage sensation, the Ibrox faithful are desperate to see their new man in action. But why haven’t we?

Moore was the glaring omission from Tuesday’s Champions League squad that was updated to include Antman, as well as being omitted from the squad for Saturday's 1-1 draw away to Motherwell.

The reasoning behind it has been put down to awaiting international clearance, but why is this taking so long?


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The simple answer is down to his age.

Under UEFA guidelines players under the age of 18 are now permitted to move abroad on loan unless special conditions are met.

Rangers have applied for special consent for the player to be registered early but there has been no update so far.

It looks likely Moore will need to wait until his 18th birthday to debut for the club.

Thankfully the ‘wonderkid’ turns 18 on the 11th of this month. He could be in line to debut away to Viktoria Plzen in the second leg of the third qualifying round tie.

However, this depends on whether the club change their registration list to include him ahead of the return leg.

It looks more likely that he will debut in the Premier Sports Cup fixture at home to Alloa Athletic on August 16th.

Fellow new signing Thelo Aasgaard also looks set to make his debut in the cup tie, as the Norwegian international makes his return from injury.