Elite Sports Group settles £9.5m case against Rangers over football kit sales

Lawyers involved in a multi-million pound Rangers football kit sales dispute have settled the case “in the last minute of stoppage time.”

Lord Braid made the remark moments after being told that parties in a £9.5m compensation claim brought against the Ibrox side had settled.

Proceedings had been brought against the club by a sportswear brand called Elite Sports Group Ltd.

Elite’s lawyers were pursuing an action against Rangers and are trying to recover the sum from them.

Elite were the exclusive brand partner to Danish sportswear firm Hummel and it instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh last November.

Lawyers claimed Rangers breached a contract which allowed the firm to provide the Glasgow team with Hummel kits.

Lawyers for Elite say the breach occurred when Rangers signed a deal with Castore, a Manchester-based brand which counts tennis ace Sir Andy Murray as one of its investors.

However, Elite went into administration shortly after the case called in Scotland’s highest civil court.

On Tuesday, the case – which was expected to last eight days – was scheduled to begin.

However, the lawyers asked the court for proceedings to be delayed as they were in negotiations. Elite’s lawyer David Thomson said that parties were in “Fergie time”.

On Tuesday, Lord Braid heard that both sides had agreed a deal. The sum wasn’t disclosed in court.

Speaking about the last minute deal, Lord Braid said: “It didn’t so much settle on the eve but in the final minute of stoppage time.”

The case which was brought by Elite arises from a separate legal dispute involving Sports Direct, which was then owned by Mike Ashley and Rangers.

Lawyer for Ashley’s firm went to the High Court in London seeking an injunction to stop the deal between Elite and Rangers from going ahead.

The deal, which was signed in October 2018, was supposed to allow Hummel to supply the ‘Gers with kits and to sell replicas to fans.

However, Judge Lionel Persey QC found that the deal with Hummel, to be a three-year contract worth £10 million, was undertaken without giving Sports Direct a chance to match it.

Judge Persey ordered that Rangers couldn’t “wear any Official Rangers Technical Products designed by, supplied by, gifted by or manufactured by Elite or Hummel, or bearing the Hummel brand”.

Castore is the official technical kit partner of a number of leading teams and athletes including Rangers,

McLaren Racing, Newcastle United, England Cricket, US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Andy Murray.

The brand sells into more than 90 countries globally and was valued as being worth £750 million in September 2022.

The court has previously heard how Rangers signed a deal with Castore in May 2020 and that this dea breached the terms of the Hummel one. The agreement was reported to be worth £20m and covered five-seasons.

Mr Thomson told the Court of Session on an earlier occasion that this new deal caused Elite to sustain losses which it needed to be compensated for.

On Tuesday, lawyers in the action told Lord Braid that they needed more time to negotiate.

Mr Thomson said: “We are not so much as into stoppage time but what has been described in the popular press as Fergie time.”

Fergie time was an expression coined during Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure as Manchester United manager.

It was used by opposition fans to describe moments they reckoned were added onto matches to allow the reds to score a winner or equaliser.

Lord Braid allowed the lawyers to negotiate until 1.30pm.

The parties then returned then to tell the court that there was no need for the case to go ahead.

Mr Thomson told the court that a further hearing may have to take place next week. But there was no guarantee that this would take place.

He added: “It is hoped that it won’t be required and if it is required it will be a formality.”

Lord Braid then discharged the hearing.