Newcastle Utd have reportedly been forced to keep Sports Direct signage up at St James’ Park in a legacy issue that will give Rangers fans a flashback to Mike Ashley’s involvement at Ibrox.
The infamous High St billionaire sold his stake in the Magpies to a Saudi-led consortium for a reported £305m but due to legal clauses, the new owners have been forced to keep the signage up around the stadium.
High St sportswear retailer Sports Direct are an Ashley-owned business and their presence at the famous Premier League stadium is a constant reminder of his legacy.
It speaks volumes that Newcastle United fans would rather the Saudi-led PIF involved at the club than Ashley and this kind of complication is exactly why.
According to the Daily Mail, the Saudi owners and British businesswoman cohort Amanda Staveley hope to remove the signs in the “short term” with a retail deal expiring come the end of the season.
Rangers all too familiar with Newcastle Sports Direct legacy issues
Mike Ashley at one point owned a near 10% stake in Rangers and during the club’s most difficult years was a provider of a series of loans amounting up to £5m to keep the club afloat.
These were paid back by the new regime at the end of 2015 whilst Ashley went on to sell his remaining Rangers stake in the summer of 2017.
But Ashley’s legacy at Rangers was felt so much more significantly by poorly weighted retail deals struck during his time as a shareholder.
Rangers fans boycotted the club’s retail operations for years amid revelations the Gers were receiving only 4p to the £1 for their merchandise.
The contract was lambasted by ex-chairman Dave King who claimed there was a “clear conflict of interest” when it was signed and Rangers had to initiate a seven-year notice period to break the contract.
What followed were a series of high-profile court cases and dramas before Rangers finally got rid of Ashley’s influence when they announced the Castore deal in 2020.
Newcastle fans will be well aware of how Ashley operates but Rangers fans know all to well that legacy contracts and legal stipulations are what the guy does.
Speaking of Castore, one leading Business journalist believes that the Ibrox retailer could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Newcastle United deal.
