Well, what do you know? It seems that the Celtic sites were right on the money. Again. It seems that Phil, E-Tims, The CelticBlog and others knew what we were talking about after all when we said that Sevco would wind up back in court against Ashley and Sports Direct over their recent decision to put their shabby shirts on sale through JD Sport.
Today, as the first writ has been served, the Scottish media finally caught up with us.
Phil was the one who broke the story about how Ashley was preparing yet another legal case. It was the first confirmation of what E-Tims and this site had already suspected and written; every single minor victory King has, over anybody, ends with him crowing from the rooftops. There was something fishy in the way the club didn’t make a big deal out of finally getting their strips out to the fans. We all knew exactly what that meant.
As per usual, the Scottish media was miles behind on the story. Phil’s exclusive on it is more than a week old. He and the rest of the Celtic blogosphere have been saying “watch this space” for longer than that. How difficult would it have been for the hacks to ask the club, directly, if the sales meant that the dispute with Sports Direct was at an end? How hard would it have been to get a quote from Ashley’s people, or the man himself?
Five minutes work. I can only speculate on the reasons why they didn’t, and when I do I cannot help but conclude that they had a feeling what the answer would be and didn’t want to rock the boat. The boat is now rocking alright. The boat, in fact, is sinking.
Sevco is a club that believes it can do as it likes. This is another example of King blatantly defying a court and deciding that a contract – a legally binding document – isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. As per usual, those who run the game are utterly silent on the contemptuous way that man and through him his club interpret the law.
Today Phil has broken another story, that the Takeover Panel has King back in court in November, after the collapse of his latest attempt to have the whole thing dismissed. They didn’t buy his legal team’s quite farcical suggestion that “contempt of court” had not been proved; actually it is has, and it’s obvious in the way the man behaves.
Phil’s real exclusive today is that during the court proceedings, King’s lawyer has had to admit that he is acting on behalf of the club as well as King in the case … so much for the repeated assertions – all absolutely false – that whatever happens will have no bearing on Sevco itself. This admission suggests that people inside Ibrox are well aware that it will.
But this is another day in which the Celtic sites have proven to be well ahead of the game; we’ve been writing extensively not only on Ashley but on the Takeover Panel’s continuing war with the Sevco chairman and how that will have consequences for the club.
Things move slowly sometimes – too slowly for a lot of our fans, who are impatient to see these matters reach their conclusion – but they do move, and they are moving now. The way that club is run, serious legal problems go with the territory.
It is the most unprofessional, and scandalized, club in football right now.
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