Rangers chiefs lose latest round of court battle with Sports Direct and Mike Ashley over merchandise

[D'Artagnan 173]

On 20/07/2019 at 01:54, craig said:

Agreed.

 

people talk as if legal disagreements are “black and white” and there can only be one correct viewpoint.

 

People are tending to ignore that the current Board inherited the carnage of these contracts from their useless predecessors.  Trying to unwind these one-sided, highly restrictive contracts was always going to be extremely difficult, no matter who the Board were and no matter who the legal team was.

 

The Board took action which they hoped would break stalemates and try to come to resolution.... it didn’t happen but a) it wasn’t for the lack of trying and b) it wasn’t their fault the Club were bound into these ridiculously one sided contracts.

 

Some just want to ignore the good that the Board have done and focus on the negative..... the appointment of Mark Allen very much seems to be paying dividends... after the fiasco of Caixinha it appears the club have made a very shrewd appointment in Gerrard, they have provided funds for acquisitions, there have been renovations at ibrox, HTC has been given an upgrade, the Academy teams seem to be “best in class in country”, we have playing staff who can actually be sold for a change rather than paid off, leaks to the press seem to have been quashed.....

 

There are many, many more positives around the club right now - to focus on one of the few negatives seems churlish to me and, worse, it is one whereby the current Board were hamstrung to it since the day they took over.

Agred Craig,

 

Seems we are testing the waters of every legal stage - some you win some you lose. I can see this being a real war of attrition & given what is happening at SD not one they will welcome at the moment.

[pete 2,499]

6 hours ago, Bluedell said:

I don't think Ashley was ever the majority/largest shareholder. 

No there was a block that voted together to keep getting the majority of votes. It was only when one investors group didn't like what was happening and flew the nest selling their shares to King and the 3 bears. I think if I remember right Ashely had 9% of the shares but my memory isn't great.

[BEARGER 1,830]

31 July 19

Rangers vs Sports Direct: Club won't wear Hummel next year as judge 'kills' deal

Mark Hendry  @mhendry92 Multimedia Reporter

   

 

 

Rangers will not be allowed to wear Hummel kits next year after a judge ruling 'killed' the deal, it has been reported today.

An injunction was imposed on Gers preventing them from selling or wearing Hummel for season 2020/21.

We recently told how Rangers lost their latest in a long line of court battles with Sports Direct over replica kit.

But it has been speculated today that Lionel Persey QC outlined the injunction which stops the Light Blues' Hummel deal from next season.

In his ruling, the Scottish Sun quote the report as saying: "It is ordered that: Rangers shall not perform the Elite/Hummel Agreement.

 

 

"Rangers shall not assist Elite or Hummel to perform the Elite/Hummel Agreement.

"And Rangers shall inform Elite and Hummel that it will not perform the Elite/Hummel Agreement."

Rangers have been approached for comment.

More follows.

[ian1964 10,724]

Sons of Struth

Yesterday at 12:18 ·

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM
THE KIT DEAL SAGA

Last week we witnessed an amazing amount of noise regarding Rangers kit deal and some amazing misinterpretations of truth. So much so that many of these inaccuracies had Rangers fans thinking some of these headlines and blogs must be true.

Rangers fans were led to believe many things including, we won’t be using Hummel, we wouldn’t be able to buy kits, Rangers won’t have kit for next season and Sports Direct would be paid millions in costs. You can imagine why some were upset.

The more calm among our support, who have unfortunately had many years of court cases to dissect, suggested that folk should wait until the case was finally settled before deciding if renegotiating the 7 year rolling contract and replacing it with a “normalised” deal that we eventually broke, was value for money or a waste of money. With the final figures still some way from being agreed, it’s difficult to say for sure but with this court order dated 19th July, it appears some folks fears may have been misplaced as the legal costs alone awarded to Sports Direct (£440k) are somewhat lower than plenty suggested.

On first reading some may be cringing when they read paragraphs 6 and 7 of this order but once you’ve digested the whole document you will see allowances in the scary parts of 6/7 and Rangers will be able to register, order and sell kits next season despite the claims of many.

So where are we with this? The court order states further court dates at the end of September which may be for SD to put forward their claim for damages, Rangers should then be given the opportunity to appeal this amount and then the judge will finally put a value on the award to SD. This could obviously take months and would probably be 2020 if you use previous cases as a barometer. Then and only then can a fair assessment of value take place.

So far Rangers have paid £3m to normalise the 7 year deal, we received a £1.6m dividend shortly after normalising this deal and today we can see a legal bill for £444k. That means we are roughly £1.9m down plus a figure to be assessed by the judge for damages to SD for us doing a deal with Elite. The wise money is guessing this will be £1m. If this does turn out to be the figure then it will have cost Rangers just under£3m to bin a 7 year deal that was returning us zero profit. Wise men suggest this is around one years worth of kit income and hopefully the next 6 years make far more than we could have dreamt of from Ashley’s 7 year deal.

We shall be patient waiting for the final outcome (probably next year) but it does look on the face of it that by being sued and allowing Rangers fans to buy kit for the first time in years, it’ll be ok in the long run. Just don’t tell the headline writers and crazy bloggers that.

This court order is publicly available. I wonder why none of the MSM or distractor bloggers have put it out.

 

https://www.facebook.com/SonsOfStruth/photos/pcb.2456138064617307/2456137967950650/?type=3&theater

 

[compo 7,044]

What a shambles wont be surprised if Elite and Hummel come after us next for loss of trade .

[rbr 1,256]

The sons of struth post is just bizarre , it is like something comical ali would write .

[Scott7 6,009]

The order to pay £444+++  costs is not the final costs figure. More to come I fear plus damages.

[Bill 13,717]

47 minutes ago, rbr said:

The sons of struth post is just bizarre , it is like something comical ali would write .

I think Comical Ali is actually their CEO ... and bizarre is about right. Why do they bother?

[Crimson Dynamo 128]

On the face of it this seems pretty serious and looks like it could be very costly for us. I'm not sure it  is quite as catastrophic as some outlets are implying but all the same.

 

I'm getting concerned some our fans groups seem to be going down the fake news route and everything is gravy.

 

The board need to be straight with the fans.

[Gonzo79 15,294]

The board's hands are tied with regards to transparency.  It's an ongoing court case, so they can only say so much.

 

I'm in the, "It doesn't look good but let's not panic yet.", camp.