Sports Direct Wins Injunction Against King Board – And Blames The Daily Record

Sports Direct’s legal team today turned their guns not only on the Sevco board but on The Daily Record, in two separate hearings, one in London and the other in Edinburgh.

The purpose of these hearings was to compel the Sevco board to stick to commercial confidentiality clauses which exist as part of not only the Rangers Retail Limited agreements but also as conditions for the loans which are the subject of tomorrow’s Sevco EGM.

The council for Sports Direct – one of five lawyers they had at the London hearing – told the court that the hearing was necessary because they do not believe the assurances they have been given by the Sevco board will be observed.

One of the principal reasons they no longer trust this agreement is because of the relationship between the Sevco board and our friends at The Daily Record.

The Record ran a story last month revealing details of a “seven year rolling contract” with Sports Direct, which the company now acknowledges was accurate, but says did not come from them.

They said – and it’s hard to argue – that it could only have come from Ibrox.

The Sevco lawyers tried – unsuccessfully – to argue that the story was already the subject of speculation out-with the press, but Sports Direct’s people were able to counter that easily, especially as the Sevco lawyer wasn’t in a position to deny – under oath – that the leak came from his clients.

This must be one of the first times that a Daily Record story has been used as evidence in a courtroom, but the significance of this is obviously huge.

First, any leak of information now or in the future relating to the commercial agreements between Sevco and Sports Direct will be a violation of a court order, and punishable by legal sanctions.

Secondly, it means that the Sevco PR machine is going to have to find another way to turn the fans against Ashley and his company … not that they won’t have help with that from the press, who will call this Sports Direct trying to hide information.

Which, of course, they are.

Which, of course, they are legally entitled to do.

These legal actions represent a new – and deadly – low in the relationship between Sports Direct and the club that runs out of Ibrox.

For months now, King and his people have been talking about renegotiating their business arrangements with Ashley’s company, but in a manner more akin to hectoring than seriously trying to open lines of dialogue.

With Ashley’s decision to take legal action, to stop this campaign being waged in the media, he’s saying that playing nice is at an end.

When the two parties next meet, Sports Direct will know full well that the whole affair can be conducted without fear of leaks.

Their lawyers can, quite literally, bring The Complete Works of Tolstoy to the meeting and read them all the way through, bill the club for the inconvenience and return home, claiming “productive talks” and no-one at Ibrox can refute it.

The chances of a “re-negotiation” today went bye-bye and that means, with a seven year rolling deal and no earthly means of paying that off, that this will be sucking money out of King’s club for many, many, many years to come.

Today wasn’t the explosion of fireworks I thought it might be last night.

But when a company brings five lawyers to a legal skirmish like this – and then submits a request for the legal fees to be met by the opposition, fees so large even the judge is shocked – well, the gloves are off. These unexpected legal battles are only the first of many.

Sports Direct were awarded £20,000 in legal costs as a result of this today, not to mention what Sevco’s own lawyers are billing them, so there is a financial consequence of poking Ashley with a stick that goes beyond ring-fencing assets, which is clearly the next logicial step if tomorrow goes how we all think it will.

But the worst news for Sevco is that there is no trust in this business relationship.

There is no respect between the two parties.

There is no way of patching things up or making it work to the benefit of both.

There is only Sports Direct and the iron grip they have on Sevco’s merchandising deals and, until King writes Ashley a cheque for £5 million, everything else too.

Ashley is a businessman. He doesn’t usually make things personal.

But in business his reputation as a ruthless individual is well known and feared.

What do you think happens to people who piss him off?

I think we’re going to find out.