Rangers settle multi-million-pound football kit dispute

Lawyers in a multi-million-pound case against Rangers in a dispute over football kit sales have told a judge the matter has been settled.

Proceedings seeking £9.5m had been brought against the club by sportswear brand Elite Sports Group Ltd.

Elite was the exclusive brand partner to Danish sportswear firm Hummel. Its lawyers claimed Rangers breached a contract which allowed the firm to provide the Glasgow team with Hummel kits.

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

Two weeks ago lawyers told Lord Braid that a deal had been agreed between parties in “Fergie Time”. Lord Braid described it as being made in “the last minute of stoppage time.” No sum was disclosed.

However, last week, lawyers in the matter returned to court to tell Lord Braid that the matter had not yet settled due to a disagreement over the terms of the written contract in the deal.

Lord Braid urged jurors to give “110 per cent commitment” to resolve the matter.

On Tuesday, during a short hearing, David Thomson KC, acting on behalf of Elite, said the disagreement had been resolved.

He said: “Since the case was last before your lordship, I am pleased to say that parties have now resolved their outstanding differences in relation to the written settlement agreement.

“The terms of the final written agreement were finalised last night.

“The contract has been executed by Rangers and it will be executed on behalf of the pursuer today.

“The document will be signed today – speaking for myself its not a moment too soon before we all ran out of footballing puns to describe where we have reached in the case.”

Quoting commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme’s most famous line after witnessing Geoff Hurst scoring the final goal in England’s 1966 World Cup win over West Germany, he said: “Perhaps it is time for one more – they think it is all over – it is now.”

This prompted Lord Braid to reply: “I’m not even going to try to compete with that.”

Mr Thomson replied: “Indeed.”

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”.

Two weeks ago, the case, which was expected to take eight days to hear, was due to begin in Parliament House at 10am. However, lawyers in the action could be seen talking to each other discreetly in Parliament Hall.

They later came into court shortly after midday and 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.

The case called again last week and parties addressed each other in a virtual hearing.

Mr Thomson said the deal agreed between the firm and Rangers had to be put in writing.

He said that a draft agreement had been given to lawyers acting for Rangers. But that the Glasgow club hadn’t given any instructions to their lawyers about the agreement.

The advocate acting for Rangers, Gavin MacColl KC, told the court that the draft contained things that hadn’t been agreed between parties the previous week.

Lord Braid told the lawyers that they had a two week deadline to settle the action.

He told them that the matter would call in court next Tuesday to see if matters had been resolved.

He added: “Given that the parties seem to be agreed that settlement has been agreed then it should easily be capable to get the settlement over the line in the next few days.

“I don’t know where the fault lies.

“I will continue the case until next Tuesday at 9am and expect all involved – parties and solicitors – to show 110 per cent commitment as it were to getting this over the line by then.

“I hope we are not having the same discussion next Tuesday.”