Dave King has launched a claim against Elite for £2.8m plus expenses over this season’s merchandise deal.
In the summer of 2018 the Ibrox club announced a three year deal with Danish firm Hummel which would put the iconic chevrons on the famous blue jersey.
Almost straight away Sports Direct stepped in with an injunction that saw the sales of the kit delayed until the end of September.
With the club and Sports Direct at war with each other a ruling in 2019 terminated the Elite/Hummel contract giving the English firm control of the kit deal for the 2020/21 season.
Elite and Hummel seem to have taken that ruling as a breach of contract and have refused to hand over royalties to the club.
This afternoon’s Valentine statement from Ibrox read:
THE Rangers Football Club Limited (Rangers) has served proceedings on LBJ Sports Apparel Limited trading as Elite for payment of the sum of £2,840,236.75 plus interest and expenses.
The payment relates to sums that require to be paid to Rangers by Elite in terms of the Agreement between Rangers, Elite and Hummel A/S for the manufacture and supply of Rangers Kit and other products.
In November the club’s annual report revealed a £10m shortfall for this season with no announcements of any investment since then.
No kit deal is in place for next season with Sports Direct expected to get ‘many millions of pounds’ in compensation for breach of contract.
