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Sevco Gives Sports Direct Notice: Only Seven More Years Of Retail Hell To Go!

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Sevco has today given notice to Sports Direct that it wishes to end its relationship with the firm.

Not to worry, Sevco fans; the notice period is only seven years!

So, on or around this day in 2023 the club will again be able to sell its own gear without going through the Sports Direct online retail store.

Of course, at some point during the notice period they’re going to have to dig out some money from the mattress and build an entire merchandising infrastructure of their own. It was Sports Direct’s control over one, and their position as the largest online retailer in the country that was one of the “selling points” of the current deal.

Dave King has spun this as a victory for the club, and has said they are keeping their options open about challenging the deal itself through the courts. Good luck with that one, because my money would be firmly on Ashley’s people having it iron clad. They might have lost a couple of battles, but my money has always been on them winning the war.

Over the course of the next seven years the deal will cost Sevco upwards of £20 million, as it includes numerous penalty clauses including one where the club itself has to pay Sports Direct for all the unsold merchandise. Ashley’s firm says this is in place because of the club’s tendency to over order because it overestimates its level of support … something their former director Hugh Adam was warning them about nearly 20 years ago.

Trying to create a global brand out of a West of Scotland football club, and especially one mired in the 16th century, with a support prone to rabid outbursts, boycotts and furious pram rattling, was never going to be easy. Sports Direct had no intention of trying. Instead, they made sure they were covered each way regardless. If the Peepil bought shirts, great. If not, they knew they could rely on the old supremacy to see they were ordered in bulk regardless.

Billing the club for that was, to my mind, a stroke of genius and the ultimate proof of how little Dave King really cares about the football club he now controls. Because he was one of the people calling for a boycott not that long ago, knowing what it would mean to their bottom line.

The bottom line is what counts at Ibrox, of course, and King might even be able to squeeze a few more bucks out of the fans for appearing to stand up for the club.

His finding the money for O’Halloran was typical Sevco; plead poverty to the world, go to court for not paying your bills and then somehow find the wherewithal to sign a player. This is, after all, the club who’s DNA was pinched from the body of Rangers, who tried to sign a player on the day they went into administration!

Whatever’s going on at Parkhead, there’s one thing for sure; you can always rely on the people at Ibrox to give us a right good laugh.

Everyone who wants to get their hands on the famous RFC Rubber Duck in Celtic Colours (every home should have at least one!) had better get onto Sports Direct whilst the going is good.

In seven years’ time, they’ll all be gone … forever.

Then again, by that time Sevco will probably be gone too …

They’re pretty much rubber ducked already!

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