Officials from Unirea Urziceni, the Romanian club that was the scene of violent clashes between Rangers supporters and stewards last week, have claimed that the Scottish fans were solely to blame for the trouble.

Representatives of Rangers’ Champions League opponents said the drunkenness of the vast majority of the Glasgow club’s followers contributed to the skirmishes at half-time at the game on Wednesday.

Mihai Stocia, the club’s general manager, said that if his club’s stewards had strictly applied Romanian law, by refusing entry to people under the influence of alcohol, then virtually none of the Rangers fans would have been allowed into the stadium.

Rangers face a potential ban from European football after they were charged with “improper conduct” over the behaviour of the fans by Uefa, the game’s governing body in Europe. Unirea also face a charge over inadequate stadium entry procedures.

Rangers supporters threw missiles and exchanged punches with security officials who hit them with batons and sprayed pepper spray. Many of them had missed the start of the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, because staff at the ground had opened only two turnstiles. The travelling fans claimed they were spat at and taunted with chants of “Celtic” by stewards.

“We only made one mistake — we did not strictly apply the law,” said Stocia.

“In Romania, supporters who are in an inebriated state are not allowed to access the stadium, even if they have tickets. If we had strictly enforced the law, maybe no Scottish supporters would have entered the stadium.”

Another club official said: “The supporters were really drunk. Only their state and behaviour led to trouble. They started throwing chairs in the air, against other people.”

Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive, said he did not condone the actions of some supporters but criticised the poor organisation by the Romanian club and the use of CS gas.

Marius Militaru, a spokesman for the military police force in Romania, who was present at the stadium, denied that any of its officers were involved in the clashes.

Militaru said that around 100 Rangers supporters were refused entry to the ground because they were drunk, and a dispute over banners led to the trouble.

“It was a single moment of tension, which happened during half time.

“During the half-time break, a group of Scottish supporters wanted to show some huge banners, but the stewards from the security company told them not to, so as to leave the seats vacant for other supporters.

“The fans protested against this and started throwing seats around. There was an altercation there.

“It all lasted up to five to 10 minutes, but it was an isolated incident. Around 100 Scottish supporters were not allowed to enter the stadium because they were in an obviously inebriated state.

“Romanian law number 4/2008, the law to prevent and stop violence during sports activities, says the access to stadiums is forbidden to people who are inebriated.”

Cristian Ciocan, a spokesman for the Bucharest police, said they had received no complaints about the use of tear gas.

Yesterday, Rangers declined to respond to the accusations.

In a statement issued last week, Bain said: “I am not for a moment condoning the action of some supporters to the unfolding of events within the stadium, but the preparations which were agreed and insisted upon in advance were not adhered to, and this in turn, we feel, jeopardised the safety of our supporters.”

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