YOU TRIED TO BULLY GERS
controversial partnership with second-hand car dealer cinch.
Rangers spent last season refusing to comply with requirements to display cinch branding after claiming it breached an existing commercial deal the club had with Park’s own car dealership.
Despite the tweak to the cinch deal, the Light Blues will continue to profit from the tie-up after SPFL sources confirmed to Record Sport they will still receive “every penny” due in prize money and commercial revenue.
Now the Ibrox chairman’s company are demanding the SPFL say sorry as they call on the SFA to carry out a probe into the fall-out.
A Parks of Hamilton spokesperson said: “We were not surprised to learn from the media announcement the SPFL have finally acknowledged Rangers legitimately engaged rule i7 in June of last year and thus vindicated the stance held by the club for over a year.
“It’s not for us to speculate as to why the SPFL leadership sought to ignore their own rules for so long.
“The fact the SPFL prevaricated and continued to stall an arbitration process they themselves initiated in August last year, and which was ruled upon by the court of appeal in October, underlined the weakness of the case they truly had.
“Were it not for our interim interdict, it is clear their strategy was to try and bully one of their members and shareholders, a strategy which they have employed on numerous occasions.
“Throughout the last year, Park’s have kept their counsel as the SPFL
leadership insulted us and misled the SFA, member clubs, their title sponsor, and other stakeholders in Scottish football.
“We have a long standing and proud association with Scottish football, and it was entirely wrong we were compelled to take the SFA to court because the SPFL decided to abuse the SFA’s arbitration process.”
The spokesperson added Park’s believed the SPFL and “members of its leadership” had brought the game into disrepute and failed to act with the “utmost good faith” towards their members. They urged the SFA to carry out an independent investigation saying the issue had cost all parties “hundreds of thousands” and that despite being awarded expenses in court, Park’s would not recover all their legal fees nor be compensated for “reputational damage”.
They added the SPFL leadership owe “their members an apology, they owe Park’s an apology, they owe the SFA an apology and they also owe an apology to Rangers”.
An SPFL spokesperson said: “We are currently bound by the confidentiality of the legal process. Frustratingly, we have had to keep our counsel throughout.
“However, we’ve written to Rangers and Park’s seeking confirmation this confidentiality no longer applies, following yesterday’s announcement of our revised title sponsorship agreement with cinch.
“If they agree to our proposal we will be able to provide a full and frank narrative to our member clubs. We very much look forward to the opportunity to set the record straight.”