The increasingly bitter relationship between Sports Direct and Rangers FC took yet another dive on Monday as the football club launched legal proceedings against the retailer, its founder Mike Ashley and four of the club’s former executives.
The civil case lists Rangers’ former chief executives Charles Green and Derek Llambias, former director Imran Ahmad, and former finance director Brian Stockbridge as “defenders” alongside the sportswear chain and its billionaire boss.
It is not known what the latest action concerns but it comes against the backdrop of a series of legal fights between Rangers and Sports Direct.
Ashley owns 8.92% of Rangers and 55% of Sports Direct, which has a merchandising joint venture with the club that has made the Scottish Championship winners about 4p from every pound spent in its Ibrox store.
Ahmad – who is currently believed to be overseas – and Stockbridge were appointed to Green’s board when the Yorkshire businessman took charge of Rangers by purchasing the club’s assets and business after it went into liquidation in the summer of 2012.
Green stepped down as chief executive in 2013, while Ahmad served between June 2012 and April of the following year. Stockbridge resigned from his post in January 2014.
Llambias, a close ally of Ashley, was appointed to the Rangers board in November of 2014 and became chief executive a month later, but was ousted in 2015 when a consortium led by the current chairman, Dave King, took over the club.
The latest claim has been brought at the court of session in Edinburgh and was announced in the legal notices section of the Times on Monday.
It stated: “If Imran Ahmad wishes to challenge the jurisdiction of the court or to defend the action, he should contact the Deputy Principal Clerk of Session, Edinburgh, EH1 1RQ immediately and in any event by not later than 21 days from the date of publication of this advertisement.”
Spokespeople for Sports Direct, Ashley, Llambias and Green did not respond to invitations to comment. Stockbridge did not respond to efforts to contact him, while Ahmad’s exact whereabouts is not known.
