It featured in a hotly contested Old Firm clash more than six decades ago.

Now a football awarded to Rangers great Ian McMillan after the 1963 Scottish Cup Final has been expertly restored on BBC show The Repair Shop.

The leather match ball was used in the replay between Rangers and rivals Celtic, a game that Rangers won 3-0.

As it was likely to be McMillan’s last cup final before retiring, team-mate Jim Baxter smuggled the ball off the pitch as a souvenir for him. 

The Scottish FA demanded its return but later relented and gave the ball to McMillan to commemorate his glittering career. McMillan, who played for Rangers between 1958 and 1964 and won six caps for Scotland, died aged 92 in 2024.

His grandsons, Iain and Kirk Russell, were unaware of the ball’s history when they were young, using it in family kickabouts and leaving McMillan’s autograph barely legible.

They recently learned of its storied past and, worried about its condition, sought help from The Repair Shop, whose leather expert Suzie Fletcher worked her magic on the piece of footballing history – now on display in the Ibrox trophy room.