Retail Deal - UOF statement

[BEARGER 1,830]

UoF Statement on Retail Deal - 75p in every £10 goes to club

"Since the release of the accounts for RIFC PLC, the focus has rightly been on the almost immediate requirement for more cash simply to pay bills and also the board’s wish to raise £8m in equity finance despite recently turning down a valid, fully funded offer for £16m. However, having had the accounts analysed by qualified accountants, we feel it is important to bring Rangers fans' attention to the absolutely disgraceful reality of the retail deal which has been entered into with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

 

We have become accustomed to David Somers', Comical Ali style proclamations about our club. He stated recently that Rangers "make quite a lot of money" from the Sports Direct deal but that is not how the accounts read in our analysis. In fact, despite the loyalty of the Rangers fans seeing £7.6m spent on retail in the year covered by the accounts, the club's share of that spending is a paltry £590k. That means that for every £10 spent by Rangers fans on merchandise, the club receives only around 75p. The accounts also reveal that Rangers Retail has an obligation to purchase stock at a higher price than it is able to be sold at.

 

In the second half of the year covered by the accounts it appears that the portion of profit due to the club is an unbelievable £2k.

 

For comparative purposes, the much maligned JJB agreement, our previous retail deal, made the club a minimum of £4.8m a year over the term of the deal, over 8x the amount we are making from Sports Direct.

 

Crucially, it is also not clear whether the club has yet received a penny of the £590k it is due or whether it is still retained within Rangers Retail. Indeed, from inception it would appear that the club has only received £100k in dividends from the venture with Sports Direct. Mr Ashley has loaned money to strengthen his stranglehold over our commercial operations, whilst funds due to the club through Rangers Retail, over which Sports Direct has effective control, are retained.

 

We have always feared that the deal Charles Green did with Sports Direct was dreadful for Rangers. Mr Somers' ridiculous defence of it, on behalf of this discredited and incompetent board, can be added to the list of reasons why he, the Easdale brothers, Norman Crighton and Derek Llambias are rightly distrusted by the vast majority of our fans.

 

In light of the information revealed in the accounts we urge fans to stop buying merchandise from club stores, which are now under Mr Ashley’s full control or being shut down, and Sports Direct. Your loyalty is being abused and the club is not benefiting from the money you are pouring into Mr Ashley's pockets."

[jhunter 0]

And people are asking why fans have said enough is enough

[RANGERRAB 3,668]

Needs to be raised at AGM. I'm sure it will

[ian1964 10,724]

And people are asking why fans have said enough is enough

 

Exactly!,some fans still seem to lay the blame of lack of funding at the feet of the fans who had enough of feeding the parasites that are running/ruining our club.

[forlanssister 3,114]

Needs to be raised at AGM. I'm sure it will

 

You going to raise it?

[PRW 0]

Legalised theft.

 

And yet there will still be some Rangers fans bellied at the billionaire who has bought a few shares and tapped us some pocket change to ensure his onerous contracts aren't ripped up when the house of cards comes crashing down, nothing will make them see sense on this and rid their minds that Ashley wants nothing more with us than to squeeze every last penny he can from the fan base.

 

I'd despair but I'm pretty much at the point now of not caring whenever a piece of bombshell news hits us and lays out how well and truly fucked and sewing up we are by are a shower of predatory bastards.

 

They'll never make a single penny from me, I'd much rather we faced the consequences if everyone felt the same rather than limping on and hoping these bloodsucking leeches will eventually tire of ripping us off - they wont, they'll never tire of it as making money (especially easy money) to them is as important as the air we breathe is to the rest of us.

[Steve1872 4]

BBC Sport Scotland ‏@BBCSportScot 18m18 minutes ago

Rangers fans call for retail boycott: A Rangers supporters' group calls for a boycott in protest against the c... http://bbc.in/1A8Vtw3

[ian1964 10,724]

Rangers supporters urged to stop buying club merchandise

By Richard Wilson BBC Scotland

 

A Rangers supporters' group has urged fans to stop buying club merchandise.

 

The Union of Fans (UoF) made the call after analysing the Rangers International Football Club plc (RIFC) annual results.

 

They are critical of the retail deal with Sports Direct, whose owner Mike Ashley holds almost 9% of RIFC shares.

 

The UoF believe that the agreement compares unfavourably with a previous contract struck with the retailer JJB Sports.

 

The RIFC results revealed that losses of £8.3m were made in the 12 months to the end of June 2014, and that the auditors Deloitte warned of "material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt over the group's ability to continue as a going concern".

 

The RIFC directors revealed that funding of £8m will be required, through loans or equity, to ensure that the business continues to trade for the next 12 months, on the assumption that season ticket sales will return to around 38,000, despite around 15,000 fans refusing to renew last summer, and an increase in season ticket prices.

 

UoF, a coalition of Rangers supporters' groups, sought analysis of the accounts to look at the detail of the agreement between RIFC and Sports Direct, with the two companies having a stake in the joint vehicle Rangers Retail Ltd.

 

Since Ashley increased his stake in RIFC, his long-time associate and former Newcastle United managing director, Derek Llambias, has joined the RIFC board as a non-executive director.

 

Sports Direct also gave up the naming rights to Ibrox that they purchased for £1 from former Rangers chief executive Charles Green, and consolidated "existing marketing arrangements between the parties and results in a more normalised retail joint venture marketing arrangement in which Sports Direct will continue to have certain advertising rights".

 

The UoF said in a statement: "Since the release of the accounts for RIFC PLC, the focus has been on the almost immediate requirement for more cash simply to pay bills and also the board's wish to raise £8m in equity finance despite recently turning down a valid, fully-funded offer for £16m.

 

"However, having had the accounts analysed by qualified accountants, we feel it is important to bring Rangers fans' attention to the reality of the retail deal which has been entered into with Mike Ashley's Sports Direct.

 

"David Somers [the Rangers chairman] stated recently that Rangers 'make quite a lot of money' from the Sports Direct deal, but that is not how the accounts read in our analysis. In fact, despite the loyalty of the Rangers fans seeing £7.6m spent on retail in the year covered by the accounts, the club's share of that spending is £590,000.

 

"That means for every £10 spent by Rangers fans on merchandise, the club receives only around 75p. The accounts also reveal that Rangers Retail has an obligation to purchase stock at a higher price than it is able to be sold at.

 

"In the second half of the year covered by the accounts, it appears that the portion of profit due to the club is £2,000.

 

"For comparative purposes, the much maligned JJB agreement, our previous retail deal, made the club a minimum of £4.8m a year over the term of the deal, over eight times the amount we are making from Sports Direct.

 

"Crucially, it is also not clear whether the club has yet received a penny of the £590,000 it is due or whether it is still retained within Rangers Retail. Indeed, from inception it would appear that the club has only received £100,000 in dividends from the venture with Sports Direct.

 

"In light of the information revealed in the accounts we urge fans to stop buying merchandise from club stores, which are now under Mr Ashley's full control or being shut down, and Sports Direct."

 

Rangers declined to comment.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30284514?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Steve1872 4]

from FF(fury)

The press, as is standard, all received the statement earlier in the day with an embargo. Some lawyers who list the Easdales amongst their recent clients have been working very hard to stop the statement going out. There has been no challenge to the figures. They would perhaps just prefer that Rangers fans don't get to see the truth of the matter.

 

It will be covered in several papers but likely not the ones who are also clients of these lawyers. Conflict of interest anyone?

[buster. 5,193]

Perverse world when buying club merchandise is not supporting the club, it is supporting Ashley's SD empire.

 

In effect, you are paying varying rates of what could be termed a sp.iv tax when you spend money on the club.

 

Via merchandise, the term could be modified to a 'Shark Tax' in as much as it describes better who is at the root of it and the Great White bitesize percentage taken.