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The Herald breaks rank to cover Sports Direct court case

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Image for The Herald breaks rank to cover Sports Direct court case

The Herald appears to be the only publisher to have covered yesterday’s High Court sitting on Sports Direct’s damages claim against the club from Ibrox.

Legal costs for both sides is likely to run into seven figures with Judge Lionel Persey previously discussing compensation running into many millions of pounds.

Led by BBC Scotland other news outlets in Scotland have decided to body-swerve the story which is clearly upsetting to their target audience. Yesterday’s hearing could have been covered online with reporters able to access a log-in to follow the hearing.

An outcome and pay-out is still some way off with both sides arguing over a range of costs, a four or five day hearing will be required to establish how much Sports Direct are owed.

At the heart of the matter is the 2017 contract signed between the Dave King led club and Sports Direct which gave the retailer matching rights to all future merchandise and kit deals. In 2018 the Ibrox club signed three year contracts with Hummel and Elite that they thought ended the Sports Direct link.

Hummel cut short their contract with Castore Sport now manufacturing kit from elite factories in Turkey and India. Sports Direct and House of Fraser, both in the Mike Ashley group, are the High Street partners of Castore for the Ibrox kit deal.

The Herald reports:

RANGERS is fighting a multi-million pound damages claim over an alleged merchandise deal breach over its agreements with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

Details of the claim emerged in the latest twist over the bitter battle between Rangers and Sports Direct after a judge previously stated the club had breached a legal agreement allowing Mr Ashley’s company to make an offer over club merchandising, including the Scottish Premiership leaders’ replica kits.

And lawyers acting for the Newcastle United owner’s sports firm claimed yesterday that the club feared a supporter boycott if Sports Direct had won valuable merchandise rights.

Mr Ashley, once a controlling figure at the club with a hold over its trademarks and merchandise and Rangers have been embroiled in various High Court litigations, centred on the merchandise deal, in London for more than two years.

Yesterday it emerged that a company in the Sports Direct Group, SDI Retail (SDIR), is pursuing damages over an alleged breach of obligations under merchandise deals through the Commercial Court in London.

NB The introduction should be ‘Rangers’ are fighting, not is fighting. The Rangers referred to went into liquidation in 2012 after Her Majesty refused their offer of a CVA on over £20m owed at the time, excluding the disguised remuneration scheme run by Dave Murray that was declared illegal in July 2017 by the Supreme Court.

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