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Rangers reveal had to pay £3m to Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct to get out of crippling arrangement

6 years ago
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Rangers have revealed that Sports Direct/Mike Ashley forced them to almost double their losses in the last financial year.

Releasing their latest financials, the Glasgow club announced losses of £6.7m over 12 months.

However, that includes a payment of £3m to Ashley’s Sports Direct, to allow Rangers to escape from the crippling retail contracts, which were signed in the past when others controlled the club…

Chairman Dave King has been central to covering the debts, including the payment to Ashley’s Sports Direct.

Via his New Oasis Asset Limited, Dave King put in £3m as an interest loan in this latest financial year, and King ‘will provide additional loan facilities as necessary’.

To have any chance of success on or off the pitch in the future, Rangers had to find some way to free themselves from the retail arrangements, and the price Mike Ashley has put on that is £3m. Not big money to him but I bet he enjoyed it.

Any Newcastle fan expecting any favours for the club when it comes to Mike Ashley selling Newcastle United, might need to think again.

BBC Sport:

‘The losses, revealed in the Rangers International Football Club plc annual accounts, are double that of the previous campaign.

The report predicted the club would need £4m of additional funding this season and a further £3.2m next term.

Rangers paid a £3m sum to release themselves from a retail contract with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

The accounts, for the year ending June 30, 2017, revealed Rangers received almost £6m in interest-free loans from directors and other investors, £3m of which came from King’s New Oasis Asset Limited, which is the biggest shareholder in the club.

The loans took the total debt to £15.9m – of which £6.7m is owed to New Oasis.

The report said: “The board have discussed the club’s forecast cash shortfall and have reached an agreement with New Oasis Asset Limited whereby they will provide additional loan facilities as necessary to meet the above requirements.

“Further to this, New Oasis Asset Limited and certain investors have agreed to extend their existing loan facilities to July 2019.

“The board is satisfied that those parties will continue to provide financial support to the group and have satisfied themselves as to the validity of the undertakings.

“The board acknowledge that had these assurances not been secured then a material uncertainty would exist which may cast doubt over the groups’ ability to continue as a going concern and therefore its ability to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business.”

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