At the High Court in London yesterday, Mr Justice Phillips was told by both counsels that Newco Rangers had accepted claims by Sports Direct that they were entitled to match and retain any retail contract offered by a competitive organisation.
A clause to this effect was inserted in the agreement signed a year ago, which also saw Newco pay Sports Direct £3m to terminate their existing agreement this summer, while buying Newco shares owned by Mike Ashley at a premium price of 27p per share.
Apart from ordering Newco to pay Sports Direct costs, the judge declined to act, telling both parties to get on with it. Although Newco have conceded their earlier position was wrong, much work has still to be done to effect the terms of the contract and put any new deal in place.
The mechanisms to bring about a new deal between Newco and Sports Direct are difficult. The deal Newco apparently made with JD Sports to pick up retail operations from now is clearly in jeopardy, which could cause additional problems for the Ibrox club.
Justice Phillips told Sports Direct counsel, “You are going to get your new contract with Rangers (sic.),” but this is far from certain.
Newco will have to look at whatever contract they have signed with JD Sports, a contract they will have to terminate before they can even open discussions with Mike Ashley’s representatives. A sticking point in this respect is likely to be non-disclosure terms. JD cannot allow their direct competitor sight of their offer.
It would be more appealing to pay Ashley off, again, and do business with JD Sports, than offer JD Sports compensation for terminating a contract they will expect to earn millions from. The latter option would necessarily reveal JD’s offer structure, terms and contract nuances to their principle competitor. A clear violation.
Ashley knows this. He is likely to hold out for the disclosure the contract requires. It will be an added bonus to an already sweet deal.
The first call will be to JD Sports, who will be asked if they will tear up a contract worth millions, and agree that their commercial offer details can be shared with Sports Direct. JD are a FTSE 250 company in their own right, and a subsidiary of Pentland Group, which also owns Speedo, Mitre, Red or Dead and Kickers. I cannot even imagine who would have the authority to tear up such a deal without appropriate compensation. But, there again, I cannot imagine the compensation figure Ashley would demand to tear up his contract.
Then there is the Hummel contract to consider. Kit sponsorship deals depend on kit being sold. Financial returns are performance dependent. This is another can of worms. The first summer of this deal will be over with the Danish manufacturer significantly down on projections.
The short history of Newco has seen a litany of horrendous commercial decisions but none more onerous than the deal signed with Sports Direct last year, or this year’s cataclysmic oversight not to honour that deal.
They bought 9% of their own shareholding for an inflated price of 27p, paid £3m in cash to curtail the existing agreement, will now have to make good to either JD or Sports Direct, and pay £500k legal costs.
The problem, as you and I know, is not Mike Ashley. The world knows what kind of character Ashley is, there can be no surprises on that front when it comes to this. The problem is Newco is a shambles of an operation. Vain-glorious statements are the only environment they compete in, and in that competition, they are the real world champions!
Why the ‘Rangers’-sympathetic journalists have not chased him out of town is inexplicable. He is doing damage in plain sight but being allowed a free ride. We will miss him when he goes.
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Paul 67,
Very hard to comprehend the farcical contract situation at Grayskull. Frankly, as long as it’s detrimental to the huns I’m happy.
My friends in Celtic,
Looking forward to the new season ( Provided we get a favourable result tomorrow).
Celtic bring me focus, happiness and anticipation. Always a pleasure to watch Celtic.Regardless of any failings.
COYBIG and HH.
HRVATSKI JIM on 31ST JULY 2018 4:37 PM
First moniker free of charge. Subsequent monikers £49 each.
?
MIT @ 17.17.
One parent families should also be mentioned and revered when talking about Love of Celtic.
HH.
GP- i think we need to be very careful tomorrow, they have a few decent players and can’t let them score early i hope.I might be in minority, i would put Kouassi and Broonie in front of a back 4, possibly use it as a template for future Euro games.We don’t need to chase it and leave us exposed, we have pace on the break to score.HH
Toleratin’ the hunned-up, multi-monikered scripted sleekit(s), the ridiculous talkin’ dugs and the panto Forest, Forest Dumps, 3,4, 5…is bound to take its toll on the blog – afterall that’s what its intended to do……
…bear-faced sleekitry.
drroon thum ooot.
Speaking of World Class
David66
calm down
http://www.premiersports.com/
BADA BING,Don’t be shy name names ,who upset the supporters on here,don’t think that should be hard ??
!!Bada Bing!!
I’m pretty sure young Eboue will start and impress
BSR
looks like Shawfield
GARY67 on 31ST JULY 2018 4:34 PM
Time to bin CQN. Used to be informative, now beyond tedious.
Is the wrong answer CSC
GENE
Indeed
Young Daniel Fergus via the excellent Kerrydale St
mit
catholics in scotland were cheated this is not a celtic thing, its the country.
If fan happiness is measured by activity during transfer windaes – then the Sevconians must have reached Nirvana given their annual rebuild exercise while us tims are doomed to a life of never ending misery…
BSR
will own up to having a couple of previous blog names
If we don’t win the treble this year I’m finished…it’s disgraceful. Peter Lawwell should be ashamed of himself not buying us a centre-half. Look at rangers, they have bought lots of players and they don’t have as much money as we ourselves personally do. Never mind lights for the stadium, we didn’t need them. I could see fine with the lights we had. And we don’t need a hotel. I won’t ever stay there ’cause I live just along the road a wee bit. And Almore’s cafe will probably sell only prawn sandwiches and bovril and I’m a veterinarian, so, I won’t be going there either.
I remember when life was fun……….although it was a few weeks ago now!
Timbhoy- i have no bother calling out guys for a chat, that’s what blogs are for IMO, last few days strangers appear and post anti Celtic rubbish.You have had a few critics recently, don’t let that put you off, i don’t agree with a lot of your posts, and plenty won’t agree with mine.As BSR posted , the close season bollox gets more hysterical every year, keep keeping on HH
gene
What happened to the Multi Monikered – Happy Clappers?
LesserSpotted CSC
Talking about talking dugs…mine just said, “Are you taking us to the park or do we just shite in the hall?”
They win again…
TIM MALONE WILL TELL on 31ST JULY 2018 5:33 PM
If fan happiness is measured by activity during transfer windaes – then the Sevconians must have reached Nirvana given their annual rebuild exercise while us tims are doomed to a life of never ending misery…
They have went from attracting a big name manager(with no experience), to haggling on a payment plan for Kyle Lafferty.It’s the hope that kills them….
How many Old Firm games at £49 a pop will it take for the huns to recoup yesterdays losses?
Bada Bing – it’s like they are trying to reassemble their last title winning team on the cheap – maybe “Naisy” is next in line – or perhaps XXXL Boyd?
In the meantime, all we can do is stand on the sidelines and enviously watch their wheeling and dealing – with only our trophies as scant consolation.
Hi Paul67,
“The problem, as you and I know, is not Mike Ashley. The world knows what kind of character Ashley is, there can be no surprises on that front when it comes to this. The problem is Newco is a shambles of an operation…
…Why the ‘Rangers’-sympathetic journalists have not chased him out of town is inexplicable.”
Well as far as the “journalists” go, they may have the same think as Stewart Regan. When asked why he hadn’t moved sooner against Craig Whyte he said he couldn’t do it while Rangers were happy with him. A quite extraordinary thing for the CEO of a Football Authority to say but there you have it.
Today Dave King is that man, the bears support him so he’s untouchable. Unfortunately this situation is going to change.
If DCK was looking for longevity – upsetting Mike A was a ridiculous thing to do.
As soon as DCK had “won” in his bid to take over Sevco Rangers, rather than do as he promised, cough, cough and get rid of MA, he actually stated he’d quite like to keep the £5M loan from SD and possibly draw down the other £5M that SD had made available (to the Sevco old Board).
That is when I understood DCK had completely failed to grasp what he had done. It was if G&SL thought, MA would look on DCK’s manoeuvres in the dark arts of Business as been bested by some worthy opponent and tip his chapeau to King’s genius – not a chance.
We should remind ourselves that SD are behind the ToP investigation on top of all else.
MA doesn’t look on revenge as a dish served cold. He looks on it as a multi course carnivorous feast.
Good luck with that one David.
Hail Hail
CELTARELLA
Would you rather we let all 800 of them in cheaply?
I’d rather we didn’t let any of them in at all, but its like everything else in Scotland
we have a Celtic that play by the rules.
Interesting this blog. It is becoming more and more like follow follow with any dissenting voices subject to puerile ridicule. In fact the blog may be worse than follow follow in that selective deletions by mods seems to be the order of the day.
While the happyclappy children stick their fingers in their ears and sing loudly isn’t it interesting how paul67 loves talking about the Hun and yet i see no genuine interest in Celtic lack of response to recent res12 issues nor anything about the dearth of transfer activity.
But hey it’s great pointing to them squirrels.
Are your really all this daft! Bloated in relative success which the Scottish authorities are happy to allow while they get away with corruption.
Soon you will be put in your place.
bournesouprecipe on 31st July 2018 6:15 pm
I’m sure the huns get more than £40k for an Old Firm game. That’s about the same as Celtic billed them for toilet damage.
approx £50×50,0000 =£2.5m per OF game.
at £2.5m per game you can begin to see the scale of the bigot buck in Scotland.
HeadsstuckinthesandbipolarrusCSC
BSR
I think that the price of a ticket for Celtic vSevco should be the same price as a ticket for Celtic v Aberdeen matches, which I believe was £29. Are Celtic charging 800 huns and 7000 Tims £49 for the forthcoming Glasgow Derby match?
Outrageous if so.
I’d estimate that Celtic PLC will help recover yesterdays huns losses by Christmas.
WEE BOBBY COLLINS. don’t mention talkin dugs or big jimmy will have you.lol.frankie and benny.com.
MIKE IN TORONTO.got your e-mail you keep keeping on.
bp1
Cheers mate.
No Huns at Paradise..
That’s got to be the end game.
HH
D. :)
lets take the blinkers. off my old man and his old man were from the parish of holy cross croy.the only jobs they could get was in the coalmines dullatur bedlay twechar etc. why because of their religion. we owe it to them to fight for what is right.
Mags
I reckon the average price per game for a season ticket holder at Celtic Park or Ibrox is £25 per match. Only 7000 thousand or so tickets will be on sale at both grounds for double that price. Approx £350,000 income per match.
David66
No huns at all, would be my preferred end game.
YNWA
TURKEYBHOY on 31ST JULY 2018 4:15 PM
Somebody was saying the other day,that standing at Celtic Park in the bad old days,when we were winning nothing,was in a lot of ways better than present.The sense of togetherness,to combat the misery of what we were suffering.I have to agree.I remember being excited when we signed Hugh Maxwell !!!!!!!!!!!??.Thats how easy pleased we were under the Kellys andWhites.
*or Paddy Turner
Looks like Laugherty and co will have been waiting for a nod, or a nudge and a wink, that the fenian gullibilly’s have moved on.
Imagine that.
Which makes you think…..who would win?
A £49:00 Celtic customer ?
Or,……
A Resolution : 12 supporter ?
Hmmmmmm?