Rangers Blind Party

The main organisation that provides commentaries to blind people at football grounds within Scotland is known as the Rex Blind Parties.

In the winter of 1937 a gentleman called Bob Kingsley decided that he was very interested in sports and thought he would try and establish a group and provide commentaries to blind people at football grounds and on Christmas Day in December 1937 Bob Kingsley provided his first commentary to a group of twelve blind people and this was a match between Third Lanark and Hearts at Cathkin Park in Glasgow.

Over the years the organisation has grown in stature and numbers and most football grounds in Scotland now have a blind party attached to their club.

The largest party in Scotland at present is the Rangers Blind Party and at most home games at Ibrox we have between forty and fifty people attending fixtures.

At present at Ibrox we have approximately half a dozen people who act as commentators/guides and provide commentaries to the group to a very high and effictive standard and also assist blind members in and out the ground.

The way in which the commentary works is that we use a portable battery powered operated audio-loop system and at Ibrox and at away grounds in Scotland and in Europe. The way in which the commentary works is that the commentator has a portable microphone and each member of the party has a small portable receiver with either a single or a double earpiece and each receiver has its own volume control button and therefore each member listening to the commentary can adjust the volume to suit themselves.

During a normal game at Ibrox we change the commentator at regular intervals and this helps the commentators and the members to listen to the game and help with any requirements during the duration of the match.

Most of the members including myself like to listen to a game with a single earpiece as it means we can listen to the commentary and also listen to the atmosphere of the crowd within the ground and I think this is very important to our group.

The Rangers Blind Party are situated in the West enclosure immediately behind the away dugout and next to the tunnel and this suits our requirements and the party are very grateful to Rangers Football Club for providing these facilities for us at Ibrox and we receive a great deal of kind assistance from various club officials and stewards at Ibrox.

Quite a few of our members who live locally or near Glasgow, but we also have members who travel from Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Edinburgh to attend matches at Ibrox. These people are very kindly catered for by their local supporters club.

Jim this a brief history of our party and how we operate at Ibrox and if you need anymore information then please contact myself, Robert, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Robert Hughes