Following Rangers' Europa League triumph over OGC Nice on Thursday night, the local police authority have claimed that disturbances caused before and after the game were as a result of behaviour from the home ultras. 

And that's seemingly why they upped the ante inside the away end at Allianz Riviera and they now want UEFA to act accordingly. 

In a pointed statement, Rangers voiced their "deep concern" over the treatment of their fans, criticising the "draconian security operation" and "heavy-handed" policing they encountered.

The Scottish Premiership club say they had proactively engaged with French authorities in the weeks leading up to the league phase match, anticipating potential issues based on previous experiences faced by visiting teams.

Benoit Huber, chief of police staff for the Alpes-Maritimes region, confirmed that the ultras from the Ligue 1 club were involved in attempts to confront Rangers supporters at the stadium, raising significant concerns about crowd control and safety measures during the event.

"The evening was very difficult," Huber said. "There was a large-scale police force of 260 officers who were mobilised and attempted to repel the assaults of 100 to 200 Nice Ultras who left the popular south stand to try and confront the Scottish fans in the Ray and Garibaldi stands. Tear gas was deployed and nine fans were injured.

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"UEFA must sanction the club for the behaviour of its supporters. People come to a stadium to watch a match, not to fight. In this case, it was clearly the people from Nice who went into contact to fight. And it was the 260 police officers who had been mobilised who stopped them.

"We are going to try to identify as many of the protagonists as possible so that they can be punished administratively, with stadium bans, or even through the courts."

A Rangers statement on Friday called out the heavy handed behaviour and said: "Rangers FC is deeply concerned over several unacceptable incidents in Nice last night where our supporters’ safety was jeopardised.

"For some weeks now, the club has engaged with UEFA, Football Supporters’ Europe (FSE) and the local French authorities, with intelligence suggesting this match had potential to be problematic based on the experiences of other visiting clubs.

"Despite that significant work, our supporters were badly let down by the draconian security operation imposed by the local authorities being poorly organised and executed. This operation was changed on several occasions with no prior warning given to Rangers staff on the ground. Much of the communication provided to Rangers in advance also proved to be incorrect, with items such as power banks taken for storage during the match.

"The heavy-handed tactics used by the local police force were also unwarranted and caused serious distress for many of our supporters. The club remains in dialogue with UEFA and FSE, and is inviting supporters affected by events last night to contact SLO@rangers.co.uk with details, images and video footage.

"The club want to put on record our thanks to our supporters for their backing last night, and for their patience as these issues were dealt with."