Jump to content

 

 

Ashley wants DK jailed!!


Recommended Posts

What anger? In my case, I actually asked - veiled - whether the DR actually asked the same question as Rab did before splashing the headline. Call it irony, sarcasm, but anger? Nah!

 

While we are at it, while splashing such headlines, you do wonder how they leave stuff like this from the article uncommented:

 

King alluded to a potential meeting with Ashley’s people when he said: “The question is, can we go along to Sports Direct and say, ‘You have a contract with Rangers Football Club. The terms of the contract are such that, for whatever reason, it’s not working for Rangers and we believe it’s not working for Sports Direct’.”

 

Ashley’s lawyers believe his comments represent such a significant breach of the gagging order’s conditions and that King should be imprisoned.

 

A source said: “Ashley’s legal team describe this sort of stuff as confidential information and argue that the *company’s reputation could be *irreparably damaged by any such leaks.

 

What reputation? The one ruined live on TV with Ashley being dragged in front of the HoP et al? About info that was widely available before the "gagging order"? Questions unanswered, but I did not expect anything re that from the DR anyway. Not least since they call the Sky interview "bizarre".

 

BTW, here's the article in full ...

 

Mike Ashley moves to have Rangers chairman Dave King JAILED over Sky Sports interview with Jim White

 

NEWCASTLE chief Ashley has accused King of breaching a gagging order placed on the Ibrox board by his firm Sports Direct during an interview in July.

 

MIKE Ashley has launched a legal move to have Rangers chairman Dave King thrown in jail.

 

The Daily Record understands Ashley has gone to court accusing King of breaching a gagging order forced on the Ibrox board by his firm Sports Direct.

 

The Newcastle United owner’s lawyers insist King breached that *injunction in July when he filmed a TV interview with Sky Sports’ Jim White.

 

During the chat at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, King confirmed he was in talks with Sports Direct over contracts signed over by the previous Rangers regime.

 

Ashley’s lawyers have also asked London’s High Court to fine Rangers for allowing King to go in front of the cameras. Legal papers have been served on King’s co-directors Paul Murray and John Gilligan.

 

The bitter feud between the Ibrox club and Ashley had raged behind the scenes for six months until last week.

 

It exploded into the public eye when King released a statement insisting the legal fight against Sports Direct will continue despite *spiralling costs.

 

We can now reveal the full extent of the fall-out which Ashley’s advisers believe should lead to King’s arrest and trial on a contempt-of-court charge.

 

In May the Record exclusively revealed that King’s board were furious to discover a seven-year notice period in the *commercial tie-up agreed between Sports Direct and former Ibrox chief executive Charles Green.

 

We told how King planned to expose further details of those secret deals in June at a Rangers general meeting. Ashley had called the meeting to demand the return of a £5million crisis loan.

 

This enraged Ashley, who had forced the previous board, led by former chairman David Somers, to sign a confidentiality *agreement with his firm.

 

Ashley reacted by going straight to the High Court’s chancery division to take out an interim injunction preventing King from spilling the beans.

 

On the same day, in Edinburgh’s Court of Session, Rangers lawyers agreed to abide by the High Court decision.

 

Now Ashley’s lawyers argue King broke the terms of that gagging order the following month when he welcomed Sky Sports to his home, to conduct a bizarre one-to-one with White.

 

During that interview King spoke about his desire to restructure the club’s commercial contracts with Ashley’s firm and warned of a mood of mounting unrest among the club’s fans.

 

Sports Direct run Rangers’ official shops and have sold £8million of merchandise in the last two years.

 

King said: “They are very concerned that, by buying Rangers replica kit or other memorabilia, they are supporting Sports Direct more than they are supporting Rangers.”

 

King alluded to a potential meeting with Ashley’s people when he said: “The question is, can we go along to Sports Direct and say, ‘You have a contract with Rangers Football Club. The terms of the contract are such that, for whatever reason, it’s not working for Rangers and we believe it’s not working for Sports Direct’.”

 

Ashley’s lawyers believe his comments represent such a significant breach of the gagging order’s conditions and that King should be imprisoned.

 

A source said: “Ashley’s legal team describe this sort of stuff as confidential information and argue that the *company’s reputation could be *irreparably damaged by any such leaks.

 

“They believe King did this quite deliberately as an attempt to force a renegotiation of commercial contracts and therefore must be found in contempt of court.

 

“They want to see him hammered for it and the club given a hefty fine into the bargain.”

 

The interim injunction is still in place and will remain so until the court decides on another legal move by Sports Direct to have King’s regime gagged on a permanent basis. Ashley’s legal team have also demanded Rangers cover all the costs of his court action.

 

Anti-Ashley campaigner Craig Houston, of fans’ group Sons of Struth, wants Rangers supporters to boycott all Sports Direct stores.

 

He said: “I was made aware that Ashley was attempting to have King arrested and fine our directors a few weeks ago.

 

“I have always wanted Rangers fans to know what is going on in our club and am glad today’s news will give all Rangers fans another glimpse of what is going on.

 

“It was exposed in the last set of accounts that our club receives 75p for every £10 spent on club merchandise.

 

“Our directors have been stating for some time that they are trying to obtain a better deal from Sports Direct and I would urge all fans to think before spending any money on merchandise.

 

“Purchasing a stadium brick or a couple of match day programmes would see more money going to our club than buying a jersey. Obviously the more fans spend in the shop, the less likely he is to renegotiate the contract.

 

“As fans we hold one important ace card – our cash. He wants it and I would urge all rangers fans to keep it from him. We have taken on bullies before and won. We won’t sit idly by any longer.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/mike-ashley-moves-rangers-chairman-6754991

Link to post
Share on other sites

I still don't understand how what Ashley has done is allowed to be legal. Business rules always seem incredibly backwards and seem to be there to allow those with no scruples to get rich at the expense of others.

 

In this case it seems that a good profit making strategy - if you've already got a lot of liquid funds, is to buy majority shares a company, put in your own board, get them to sign a incredibly onerous contract to your main company for 10 years, sell the shares and move on to the next one.

 

There has to be somewhere in law, where this kind of insider dealing is punished, and even just somewhere in law where you can have obviously overly onerous contracts snuffed out.

Link to post
Share on other sites

" Sports Direct run Rangers’ official shops and have sold £8million of merchandise in the last two years. " This is probably the most depressing thing I have read for many years.

 

So only £4m a year? We've had turnover of £12m a year in the past (excluding the years when we made our own strips) so the boycott is definitely having an impact.

Edited by Bluedell
Link to post
Share on other sites

And other contracts too. Is this what Ashley & others fear ? Could these contracts get annulled?

 

You would have to think that if they are found guilty and convicted then all contracts would be null & void?,I'm only guessing!.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So only £4m a year? We've had turnover of £12m a year in the past (excluding the years when we made our own strips) so the boycott is definitely having an impact.

 

No doubt it is having an impact B. My depression comes from Ashley still managing to shift £8 millions worth. The figure should stand at zero.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.