The Mike Ashley crest story has
reared its head again recently, even though it was broken months ago.
In essence, as part of the
various loans to keep Rangers afloat, the Newcastle owner not only managed to
snaff a couple of his own executives onto Rangers’ board, but he snatched Club
trademarks, including the badge, and the entire Retail division too.
But, as previously mentioned,
Ashley holds all the aces here and controls all the above. Simply because it is
contractual, signed off, and legally bound.
However, the get-out is that if
Rangers pay Sports Direct back the £5M, it voids the contracts. They become
null, and Ashley will have absolutely no control. From STV:
“STV can reveal the “assignation”
of the trademarks is not irrevocable and ownership should automatically be
returned to the club upon repayment.”
In other words, this is not a
one-way ticket, and can be reversed.
So when one witnesses Alastair
Johnston being trotted out again (you know, the guy who helped Mark Daly win a
BAFTA with his lies over Rangers) to suggest that the multimillionaires on
Rangers’ board do NOT pay it back and instead alter over a century’s worth of
Rangers’ history by rebranding the most important symbol of the Club, the
crest, one cannot help but be astounded.
“I don’t mean a new badge entirely but
to get as close as you can get to it without trespassing on what Ashley thinks
he’s got the rights to.”
Johnston said. Or…Douglas Park (£100M), Dave
King (£XXXM) or Paul Murray (£ ? M) can find a spare £5M among them and just
pay the man off, get Sports Direct out of Rangers and let the Club move on at
long last.
To truly advocate a rebrand of
the crest, however moderate, suggests being out of touch to the point of being
on Pluto.
King, Murray and Park, among
others, fought for years to get Rangers. They have promised investment,
millions of it. And the most important investment they can provide is
safeguarding the Club’s very soul for the good of its future by securing back
Retail, trademarks, directors, and of course that precious crest.
They have control, they are the
ones who professed to do things ‘in the best interests of the Club’ (their
words), so it is clearly time to put that cash where their mouths are and get
Ashley off the Club’s back.
£5M among a group of millionaires
is a small price to pay for Rangers’ best interests.