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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DD. Garry we probably need the token hun here and there to verbally abuse now and then right enough.??? but not in our dear green Paradise.
Hope you are well.
???
HH
D. :)
Rarely post so I’m an unknown on this blog to beat all blogs.
I was moved by a photograph I recently saw of a very young boy with his Celtic top on being led to his seat by his Dad/Grandad and the look of absolute joy on his face and this has prompted me to express some simple thoughts
I’m the son of a Glasgow Corporation Foreman Bricklayer who died many years ago after a losing bout with cancer. He gave me many things not the least of which is an abiding love of Celtic. ….
In my early years we’d head to a building site on a Saturday morning where he would “do his thing” and I would entertain myself around the fire pit which was part of the winter landscape at many of the sites at places I see mentioned constantly on the blog.
At or around noon we’d head off to Parkhead to see the game. Bonnar, Haughney and Meechan,Evans, Stein and Peacock,……………..Higgins, Fernie, Collins, Walsh, Tully, the McPhail boys……
Truly a joyous experience for a child.
Like many of you I choose to prolong this love affair because it’s a connection to a part of my life which is incredibly important to me. Managers come and go, owners may come and go but The Club remains because of the efforts of those committed to it. I have lived abroad for many decades now and CTV is my lifeline.
My thanks to those who choose to “fight the good fight” on behalf of the support.
Tontine and Turkeybhoy
Having been born in 1965 on the day we signed Joe McBride, I do not know the two players you mentioned.
Can anyone remember Liam Brady or Lou Macari make a decent signing for Celtic. My worst period of supporting Celtic was under those two.
£49 to watch Celtic play SG The Rangers should only be acceptable when it costs £49 to watch Livingston, Hibs, or any other Premier league team.
Not impressed with this decision by the club. ?
Madrebmacs Grandpa good post and don’t be a stranger.
Think we all can appreciate what our fathers, grandfathers have passed onto us and what we can pass onto the next generations.
Hail Hail???
D. :)
David66
I would give them no tickets for Paradise and tell them to stuff their 800 tickets for doomdome. I am maybe being selfish as I haven’t been to a game at Ibrox for 20 years.
YNWA
Neganon2
“Soon you will be put in your place.”
Who’ll be put in who’s place and by whom if you don’t mind me asking?
Strange thing to say to your fellow Tims some of whom don’t agree with you, I take it that’s who your threat was aimed at???
Is that your mask slipping and showing us the real contempt you have for your fellow supporters??
That’s no very nice now is it!
CQN is definitely not the same as years gone by – but this was inevitable imo. It has become a victim of its own success, to an extent. As members numbers grow, so did the variety of opinions/stances on topics for discussion. Clashes are inevitable. Also I controllable to others.
What was once a terrific blog, with great posts outnumbering the guff, has now come full circle with the guff outnumbering the good stuff.
As many have previously stated, we all have the option to scroll through the guff. The annoying thing can be the days you spend more time scrolling than actually reading – a more regular occurrence. This will not, however, deter me from continuing my habitual lurking on CQN. I still need my daily fix of Celtic news/chat. So I will continue my daily flick through CQN-Phil-CelticNewsNow, to feed my need.
So, to all posters – please continue to post. Don’t let the wind-up merchants drag you into an internet scrap – it’s only a blog after all. No troll will drive me away from lurking :-)
HH
##Tontine##
And Bobby Craig..
DELANEYS DUNKY,
I agree with you 100%. I’m older than you I’ve not been to a game involving them since 1970. I just do not want to be near the dregs of society. We’d be far better leaving them to their own midden and keep our Paradise free from damage.
HH
DD and Yogi couldn’t agree more.
HH
D. :)
I think that Paul is doing a whale jump or squirrel thingy with this topic.
Madrebmacs Grandpa
Enjoyed your Celtic post. Please post more often.
YNWA
Phil’s for ever going on about uncomfortable truth and convenient lies
IMHO
The Rangers are a new club
People want to see Celtic skelp them and are willing to pay £49 for the” privilege “
On the off chance that anyone is interested, I see our Swedish PC fresh from his world cup escapades has travelled with the squad to Norway.
H.H
MADREBMACS GRANDPA
Great post Sir:))
MADREBMACS GRANDPA on 31ST JULY 2018 7:02 PM
an awfy braw post Sir….if CQN was a pot of soup…posts like yours would be the marrow bones …
smiley look after your self thing
Hail Hail Hail
Braw
WeeBobby: if they sell prawn sandwiches in the fans’ café beside the Superstore I hope they’ll balance it with Irish breakfast pizza, like the one in Timmys.
CostadelSolCSC
Celtarella @ 6.26
Business, is business.
Blue pound, Green Pound, or New Pound.
We ‘ve a business to run, funding a better than ever Celtic. If you could go on Saturday to see the flag being unfurled or set yourself up for when Sevco roll up on 2nd Sep inside Celtic Park for potentially yet another humping, ( things for Tims to do in Glasgow of a weekend? )
Fold? – because vile bigoted Scottish ‘institutions’ co-erced and broke the rules inside and out, or just keep winning the trebles?, the Celtic support that are ‘able to’ will be there in bigger than ever, seated stadium numbers.
What did AC Milan, Inter , or Lazio do about rule breaking Rubentus?
Rangers died, and now we’ve got Sevco Rainjurz
It’s a turkey shoot
HH as ever CSC
( if you see Charlie tell him he’s missed )
50 shades
would be surprised if he started tomorrow night – I expect same starting line up as last week but maybe an extra mid for Sinky
DELANEYS DUNKY
Macari and Brady didny even buy footballers.
Wan bought a Smarmy Chef, and the other wan bought a Roof Slater.
HH
?⚽️
Yogi
I went to majority of Celtic games at Ibrox from 1980 to 1998. I got fed up with their bile and hatred towards me. Will never set foot in the glorified masonic temple lavatory again.
YNWA
DELANEYS DUNKY on 31ST JULY 2018 7:36 PM
Yogi
I went to majority of Celtic games at Ibrox from 1980 to 1998. I got fed up with their bile and hatred towards me. Will never set foot in the glorified masonic temple lavatory again.
YNWA
———————————
Me too mucker…1981 till 2002 then the light bulb moment ” why the fek am I paying these fekers to listen
to their putrid bile”?……aye it took me that long to realise :O(
Having read recent CQN blogs, and especially today’s, I have decided that I can no longer support Celtic as they make my life miserable by being successful. The last 2 years have almost been unbearable with my need to increase my daily intake of lithium batteries to near dangerous levels. I have been warned if I keep this up I may be charged.
I will not be back in Celtic Park until Celtic have been relegated and I look forward to that glorious day so that I may once again be happy about being miserable about Celtic’s lack of success.
C’mon the Hoops Fail! Fail!
miserablefeckerscsc ???????
Madrebmacs- are you a hun?
:))
Delaneys D ( earlier )
Celtarella is right to an extent, but the way ticket pricing works isn’t set up
for simplictic gestures where even Peter Lawwell ( the Bold Bhoy ) would if he could ban them, or make ‘Newco’ concessions as a gesture of our displeasure of their existence.
Business is business CSC
Almore…Irish Breakfast Pizza? That sounds……… fun. Depends though. As my wee grandson once said when told he would have fun at nursery, “I don’t like fun!”
Hunderbirds
Best bit of business then was Tom Boyd for Cascarino.
I’ve been to ipox for our last 4 visits, each and every time there have been lots and lots of fans wishing to buy tickets and more than a few willing to pay over the odds.
I fully understand people who dont wish to go there or have anything to do with whatever version of the old zombies are the current version.
What I cant get my head around are alleged Celtic fans decrying Celtic fans for wanting to support us, these trolls and wind up merchants are nothing in the grand scheme of things in the Celtic world , do they honestly believe that they will change the mind of anyone with their constant negative posts. They probably do, but that unfortunately is all they have in their lifes, a negative downtrodden outlook on everything, if only one Celtic fan removes themself from the blog because of them, then they win.
My old da would have clobbered me round the ears if I told him I had chucked it because of some doughballs criticism of my team.
The Huns were cheats when he started following Celtic, Cheats when I started, and cheats when my son started, they also win if we stop supporting Celtic.
Dont let either of them win….
H.H.
DD
Tom Boyd … a great player, and I quite like him when he does the commentary on the games.
Anywhere in Inverness to watch the game tomorrow lads. I’m near the city centre. Sack the board
VP
Took me till I was 33, but my lightbulb moment was getting spat on by a hun in his 70’s. Thought there and then. No more Ibrox for moi.
YNWA
Who would win in a fight between a full Irish and a full English.
HashBrowns CSC
Used to love going to ibrox, especially when big Jock was in charge, 20,000 Celtic fans behind the goals, both hands in the air, a scarf tied round each wrist, nine fingers pointed to the sky, singing, “allo, allo, nine in a row, nine in a row, allo, allo….. ” that’s what it felt like to be Celtic.
Big Jock stuck up the huns that hard, that had rioting all over Europe.
HH
GENE on 31ST JULY 2018 7:34 PM
50 shades
would be surprised if he started tomorrow night – I expect same starting line up as last week but maybe an extra mid for Sinky
@@@@@
Your forgetting about Jozo being on the naughty step mate, Although if Mik does start it might be in central def as I thought Gamboa had a decent game..
For thems that dinnae dae Twittur
I am not sure I can bear another summer of the Roberts saga.
But for those in the “Nah” camp a wee reminder.
Roberts played only 4596 minutes over 2.5 seasons or 51.07 worth of full matches.
However, he only completed 90m on 20 occasions.
He missed 29 matches through injury.
Roberts scored 18 goals and registered 24 assists.
He averaged 0.35 goals per 90m
He averaged 0.47 assists per 90m.
With a Scoring Contribution of 0.82 per 90m is his Celtic career only Griffiths and Dembele would have bettered that based on last season (both 0.874).
In the Invincible 16/17 season he averaged 0.97 Scoring Contribution per 90m.
Again, only Griffiths and Dembele bettered that in that same season.
Roberts attempts 6.6 dribbles per 90m, only 2.66 per 90m are successful but this is more than any other Celtic player over the period I have data for.
But more than the numbers Roberts is just so damn fun to watch. He’s exciting.
I have never said “you’re bonkers for not agreeing with me” in Celtic By Numbers. But anyone who can’t see his massive talent and further potential is, I’m sorry, bonkers.
If all our comments were Rosie on here,then this site wouldn’t last,its good to critical from time to time,but some on here take things to seriously, I’m sure Bada Bing,was having a dig at the supporter,whose father took him to his first Celtic game,asking him is he a Hun,