Gers in kit sale ban row
Injunction means club can’t sell strips
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct firm have won a court order preventing Rangers from selling the club’s new kit.
The sportswear firm went to the High Court in London where they obtained the temporary order that stops the club selling the new strips made by Danish sportswear firm Hummel.
The action was raised by a Sports Direct’s subsidiary, SDI Retail Services Ltd.
The injunction applies to three new kits launched by the Glasgow club last week – one blue, one mainly white and one orange. None are yet on sale to fans. Sports Direct claim Rangers are in breach of a contract which allowed the company to put in a bid to market and distribute the same strips.
Last Monday, their lawyers asked Mr Justice Bryan to put a temporary halt to any strip sales until all the legal arguments can be heard.
The judge issued a temporary banning order until Tuesday when the case will be called again at the High Court for a full hearing.
In his judgment he said:” I am satisfied that this is an appropriate case for injunction.”
It is expected that Sports Direct will seek to have the injunction continued on Tuesday.
Rangers announced in April that they had agreed a three-year deal with Hummel.
Their long-running distribution agreement with Sports Direct officially finishes at the end of this month
Rangers are said to have paid the firm £ 3million to get out of the arrangement.
The Ibrox side hope to be in charge of their own distribution over the three years of their Hummel deal.
Rangers declined to comment on the injunction obtained by Ashley, who had an 8.9 percent stake in Rangers but has since sold it to a fans’ group. He previously had a deal with a previous Rangers board to take 93 pence for every £ 1 of club merchandising sold in his Sports Direct stores. The punitive contract resulted in Rangers fans boycotting Sports Direct stores. When Dave King took over at Rangers in March 2012 he declared that his priority would be to tear up the agreement.
The new deal lets Rangers take the bulk of profits from sale of merchandise through their Megastore and Webstore outlets along with an equal share of profits from sales at Sports Direct stores.
Manager Steven Gerrard’s men wore the new home top for the first time in a friendly against Bury on Friday night in front of more than 40,000 supporters.
But fans were last night still in the dark over release dates for the home and away kits.
No announcement is expected to be made on their sale until next month after the old strip deal with Sports Direct ends.
Rangers had however said they hope to have the strips on sale before the start of the new Premiership season in early August.
The club’s first game is away to Aberdeen on August 5.
But any sale of the strips is dependant on the outcome of the court case in London this week.
The club are hoping to use money from the sale of the strips to allow Gerrard to strengthen the first team with new signings.
No one from Sports Direct responded to our request for a comment.