When you are dependent on the issuing of share confetti to keep the lights on its perhaps not so much of a surprise when the directors of theRangers ask the fans to dip into their pockets to do their bit.
Hefty season ticket prices, a MyGers membership, inflated prices in comparison to your rivals for European tickets and the issuing of a special kit to commemorate a mythical 150th anniversary have all been par for the course when it comes to separating the Ibrox support with their weekly pay packet.
But at least when they were getting ripped off for all of that the support were aware of the costs and can make their own mind up whether to part with their cash. When however, your club fleeces you as part of an alleged price fixing Cartel alongside JD Sports and Elite Sports, then that could be construed as ripping the Colin Nish out of many a loyal bear.
According to an article in The Times – the one down south rather than theRangers propaganda department that works out of Glasgow – the Ibrox board have been caught out overcharging their supporters for replica kits with theRangers alongside JD Sports and Elite sports investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) who published its initial findings yesterday
The Times reports Michael Grenfell, the executive director of enforcement at the CMA as saying:
“Football fans are well known for their loyalty towards their teams. “We are concerned that, in this case, Elite, JD Sports and, to some extent, Rangers(sic) may have colluded to keep prices high, so that the two retailers could pocket more money for themselves at the expense of fans.”
And if making a few quid at the expense of your own rank and file was the grubby intention of theRangers it may well backfire spectacularly as each party is likely to face a fine, if found guilty, with JD Sports already planning to set aside £2m to cover any potential charge – Ouch!
The move to Elite came in 2018 after theRangers ahem ‘ended’ their deal with Mike Ashely’s Sports Direct. Another piece of wonderful contractual business from those in charge at Ibrox that saw them make a reported 7p in every pound from kits sold – and the bears revolted by staging a boycott of XXXXL merchandise – alongside smaller kits for their children.
That in turn led to a long drawn-out court case between theRangers and Sports Direct, which was settled last month – not that you’d know it with the lack of coverage in the compliant mainstream press – and although the compensation figure was kept confidential you can be sure Mike Ashely received substantial damages.
In this case the CMA suggest Elite and JD Sports fixed prices on theRangers kits and other merchandise from September 2018 until at the very least July 2019, with theRangers alleged to have colluded in the price fixing of the adult short sleeve home kit from September 2018 to November of the same year – you know the time where most kits are sold – and the price was inflated from £55 to £60.
The allegation is that all three parties conspired to stop JD Sports from undercutting the price charged by Elite’s Gers Online store, according to the CMA, where Elite supplied theRangers merchandise through shops in Glasgow and Belfast as well as online.
Elite and JD have already admitted to ‘cartel activity’ and are said to have co-operated with the CMA inquiry, meanwhile theRangers resorted to the tried and tested statement o’clock approach stating the finding was a” provisional view only”-
“It is not a finding that (the)Rangers has broken the law and does not mean that the CMA will issue a final decision or impose a fine on (the)Rangers. (the)Rangers is committed to operating its business in full compliance with all laws, including competition law, and treats this matter very seriously. As such, (the)Rangers will review in detail the CMA’s preliminary findings and will be submitting its response to the CMA in due course.”
Any business found to have infringed prohibitions in the Competition Act 1998 can be fined up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide turnover – that’s turnover not profit – so there would be no opt-out by claiming ‘we’re skint pal’ but whether it reaches that stage remains to be seen.
What certainly appears likely is theRangers colluded with JD Sports and Elite to separate more cash from their fans than they would have been legally entitled to do and it has backfired.
Whether this was a case of those in charge at theRangers lacking in contractual expertise – which is more likely – or deliberately exploiting their fanbase once again is open to interpretation, but on both sides of that argument those in the Blue Room look once again like the rank amateurs Mike Ashley rode roughshod over in court – allegedly.
Meanwhile another one of their shirt sponsors appearing on their kits last season and presumably this one – presumably the new kits are already in production – has gone bust. Seems it’s contagious over Ibrox way. You can read all about BitCi following Sportemongo down the pan over on Follow x 2.
All those little sponsorship deals, with less due diligence than necessary being carried out are certainly proving some Banter Year moments for the rest of us. Perhaps one underestimated consequence was the entitlement to match tickets and with so many sponsorship deals that means so many tickets going to corporates and that meant for example at the Europa League Final in Seville, corporate folk on seats rather than hardcore fans – another cause of their quiet evening in Seville.
Shaun Riley
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