Marc Rieper, the 29-year-old Danish international defender, yesterday completed a £1.8 million move from West Ham United to Celtic.

Rieper signed a four-year contract with the club and is likely to make his debut in the Scottish Premier match at Motherwell this afternoon. Celtic agreed terms with the London side four weeks ago, but negotiations over the player's personal terms took time to complete.

The big Dane has signed too late to be involved in Celtic's UEFA Cup tie against Liverpool - the first leg is in Glasgow on Tuesday - but will form a partnership with Alan Stubbs, who is expected to return to the side today after injury.

The other good news for Celtic yesterday was that the Scottish FA decided to switch Scotland's final World Cup qualifier against Latvia on October 11th from Easter Road to Celtic Park. Victory will take the Scots to France at least as best runners-up in the European qualifying and Celtic's 50,000 capacity stadium is more suitable than the Hibernian ground, which holds only 15,000.

Good news too for Walter Smith who can recall four of his top players, including Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup, who missed Tuesday's League Cup defeat by Dundee United because of international duties. But Rangers will almost certainly be without their goalkeeper Andy Goram because of a groin injury.

Guardian Service