Malmö FF face Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday evening. Ahead of the clash, the Swedish club mildly aimed a dig at Philippe Clement’s side.
The two clubs faced each other in 2011 and 2021, and Rangers lost on both occasions.
Malmö posted short clips from these two clubs on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a caption: ‘Welcome back to Malmö, Rangers. We missed you’.
There was also reference to Rangers’ bankruptcy.
On Wednesday, Malmö manager Henrik Rydström insisted he sees no problem with this video. His views aren’t exactly backed up by other officials of the Swedish club.
Malmö head of communications Mattias Larsson says his side had no intention of mocking Rangers. His comments are relayed by Aftonbladet.
“Cocky and cocky… They played the Europa League final. It’s impressive and rather praised,” he said.
“We are a small club compared to them and then it is fun to beat upwards. We are proud to have knocked out such a mammoth club twice. It was not our intention for it to be perceived as unpleasant.”
When directly asked to share his thoughts on the video posted on social media, Larsson explained: “That it will be fun to meet the same club for the third time. There were good meetings before and good relations between the clubs.
“We hope that it will be even more fun to follow the build-up to the match for both their and our supporters. We hope that it does not incite ill will. That was not the intention.”
According to Aftonbladet, Malmö sporting director Daniel Andersson ‘wasn’t completely satisfied’ with the Rangers video.
The outlet claims Andersson ‘sighs slightly and turns around’ when they asked him about the social media post.
“That’s up to them [the media department]. We’re focussing on the game,” he added.
When asked if it could provide further motivation for Rangers to beat Malmö, Andersson said: “I’m not much for that. You play first and then you have to talk afterwards.”
Aftonbladet asked if he would have stopped the media team from posting that video online.
Responding to that, he said: “I’m not part of it. I’m sure it’ll be fine… I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
