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Should I buy official merchandise?


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Surely point a can be covered by a reservation of rights. You surely cant punish a company for serving notice on a 7 yr contract by then saying the notice validates the contract. I cant imagine that point a would be difficult to overcome - reservation of rights should cover this.

 

Point b is unlikely to happen anyway. We ALL know how Ashley deals with business. His way or the highway, so the chances of renegotiation were minimal regardless of serving notice.

 

Point c is tough to call I would imagine. But again, I would have thought reservation of rights still allows you to cancel the contract but reserve rights in terms of challenging the legality/veracity/validity of said contract.

 

I'm no lawyer so am guessing in all honesty - but I just cant imagine that you would validate a contract simply by serving notice.

 

You may well be right mate but I can only imagine the club will be treading as carefully as possible to maximise their legal position.

 

Without knowledge of the full contract then we're all just speculating. That's unhealthy so as good a reason as any to criticise Ashley.

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Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley still the power behind the Rangers retail throne

 

Martin Williams, Senior News Reporter / Friday 17 July 2015

 

RANGERS' retail operation remains under the control of billionaire Mike Ashley even though club chairman Dave King has now been appointed as a director, new papers reveal.

 

The latest annual return newly posted for Rangers Retail Limited confirms that the Sports Direct founder and owner remains the ultimate controlling party - despite attempts to renegotiate the deal.

 

In January, the company were given a further 26 percent of shares in Rangers Retail to add to the 49 percent which was already owned by the English businessman. It was a condition of his £5 million emergency loan to the club.

 

Now it is revealed they have come in the form of B shares, which are seen as second-class stock in the company which runs the club's entire retail and merchandise operation, including the club's Rangers Megastore and holds rights under licence to the club's famous crests.

 

Even if the loan is paid off, Mr Ashley and Sports Direct would remain in control over all Rangers Retail financial matters.

 

That is because only Sports Direct has A shares in the operation and while they make up 49 per cent of Rangers Retail, they are twice as valuable when it comes to voting. That's because each A share receives two votes instead of just one on "Financial Matters".

 

The Rangers Retail set up has been a long-lasting area of controversy and at the end of last year, Rangers Supporters Trust launched an alternative shirt for fans as they took on Mr Ashley in the war over Rangers retail - and said all profits would be ploughed back into an increased shareholding in their club.

 

The Rangers Retail Board is now made up of three directors, Mr King and Rangers International Football Club plc director Paul Murray alongside Sports Direct International chief executive David Forsey. Sports Direct's head of legal Cameron Olsen is both company secretary of Rangers Retail and SDI.

 

The Rangers Retail registered office remains at Sports Direct HQ in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.

 

Mr King said in May that he hoped to get a commercial and retail set up at Ibrox the fans "can buy into" after he was cleared by the Scottish Football Association as 'fit and proper' to be on the board.

 

After indicating that he hoped concerns about the control Mr Ashley has over the club's retail operation could be sorted out, the board got the support of shareholders at a general meeting over a month ago to decide that repaying the Mr Ashley's loan was not in the club's interests.

 

Shareholders also also backed the board in their bid to renegotiate the terms of agreements in place with Ashley’s retail empire.

 

After Mr Ashley called the June 12 meeting to call in his £5 million, the board threatened to reveal details of the existing contracts but were prevented after Ashley won a legal injunction both north and south of the border.

 

Latest accounts show that while Rangers Retail turnover quadrupled from £1.2 million in the year to April 2013 to £4.8m in the year to April 2014, profits only doubled from £434,312 to £877,662. That is because the costs associated with the sales soared by eight times that of the previous year from £546,656 to £4.2 million.

 

It is understood most of that money has gone to Sports Direct as Rangers Retail is buying Rangers merchandise, including replica kits, gifts, polo shirts and track suits from the Ashley-controlled firm for use in club outlets.

 

Sports Direct has previously confirmed that Rangers Retail has provided over £3.8m to Sports Direct in the year through such sales.

 

Rangers Retail has rights to use the club’s famous emblems the RFC Scroll crest and the “Ready” crest for use on products.

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13439288.display/

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It's a fair question mate and a difficult one to answer.

 

From the last set of accounts it was suggested the club earn 75p from every £10 spent on official merchandise. For me, and I suspect many other fans, that's not good enough given the spending power of our support so personally I've taken the decision not to buy anything from the club shop until the retail deal is renegotiated.

 

The problem is, there seems to be no sign of that happening and it may take at least seven years for the deal to end 'naturally'. As such, it's a lot to ask of fans - especially those disinterested in the political side - not to buy the merchandise we all usually like to spend our money on. However, it may be one of the few ways we can bring Ashley to the table but even that seems unlikely.

 

The problem with that figure Frankie is the it has no comparative figure to put it into any kind of perspective. Even if the suggestion is wholly accurate we have no idea how that compares with previous deals or revenue which other clubs take from their retail deals.

 

It is not difficult to work out though just how bad this deal is from a review of facts :-

 

We have Craig Mather describing it as the most one sided deal he has ever seen.

 

A deal negotiated by an individual who is now subject to serious criminal charges

 

A deal which saw Ashley issue a court gagging order in order that the details of the deal were not widely known

 

And finally King clearly attempting to negotiate better terms in respect of this deal.

 

I know what Id be doing if I were you Compo.

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Anyone who can't see the utterly corrupt nature of this deal is blind.

 

This was cooked up for the advantage of one party and one party alone. There is nothing in this deal for Rangers. Whatever sweetener/kickback/call it what you will that Chuck Green took for signing this is like a dagger through the heart of our club. Screw Ashley, give him nothing. As for Green, the sooner he is behind bars the better.

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