THE Scottish FA have handed down immediate four match bans to the five Rangers players who broke Covid regulations last month.

Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey, Bongani Zungu, Brian Kinnear and Dapo Mebude were charged by the Hampden hierarchy after serving club suspensions and receiving fines following their attendance at a house party.

A further two match ban has been suspended until the end of the campaign following a disciplinary hearing that saw the quartet accused of breaching Disciplinary Rules 24 and 77.

The incident involving the three of Steven Gerrard's first team stars and two Academy players was the second that Rangers had to deal with this season.

In November, George Edmundson and Jordan Jones were handed seven match bans for breaking club and Government regulations by attending a house party in Glasgow.

Neither played for Rangers again before joining Derby County and Sunderland respectively during the January transfer window.

Speaking earlier this month, Gerrard insisted that there had been no difference in the way Edmundson and Jones had been treated compared to the likes of Patterson, Bassey and Zungu after they returned to the Ibrox squad.

Gerrard said: "The boys are back in the group and it’s important to say they are not being treated any differently to the previous two.

“They have been dealt with exactly the same in terms of fines. They all had to self-isolate for the correct amount of time under the government guidelines.

"They were suspended by the club for the same amount of time and fined exactly the same amount in terms of weeks’ wages.

“They were dealt with the same in terms of one-to-one conversations with me. I told them all the same in terms of what I thought and all the same in that they had a second chance to play for Rangers again.

“The only difference is that the two previous lads were desperate to play and wanted to go out on loan. That was their decision as much as mine.

“But it’s important for me to stress that no-one is being treated differently from anyone else."