Ian Maxwell says Rangers' access dispute with Celtic icons Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon is "another negative" story about the Scottish game.

Sutton claimed he and former Hoops team-mate Lennon were deemed a “security risk” by Rangers after being denied the chance to work as pundits at Ibrox.

BT Sport changed plans for the pair to attend Ibrox ahead of the Europa League double header featuring both Glasgow clubs.

The broadcaster instead had Stiliyan Petrov in a studio to analyse Celtic’s early-evening encounter with Real Betis in Spain ahead of Rangers’ later clash with Lyon in Glasgow.

Commenting on the situation on the BBC's Football Breakfast show, Maxwell said: “It goes back to being about the image of the game. It doesn’t help and it is another negative, non-football story.

“It has people talking about a negative element of football and it’s something we should be trying to avoid.

“I don’t have the details and the circumstances and it isn’t right I comment on that as I don’t have the information.

“But in terms of the wider impact and the wider implications for Scottish football, it’s a relationship with a broadcast partner and we should be trying to maximise that as much as we possibly can.

“It’s not necessarily a governance issue. Clubs make a decision on who enters their stadium and who doesn’t and that happens on a daily and weekly basis.

“It’s not something we would get involved in from a governance perspective.

“But it is something we need to think about in terms of the image and the impact on Scottish football.”