Rangers and Scottish Premiership clubs to hold crisis talks over long-running sponsorship dispute
Scottish Premiership clubs will hold a crisis meeting at Hampden next month over the SPFL’s handling of a long-running sponsorship dispute with Rangers, according to the Daily Mail.
Rangers requested a meeting take place to discuss the events leading up to the signing of a sponsorship deal with online car firm Cinch in June last year.
The meeting seems to have been fast-tracked after news broke that Rangers managing director Stewart Robinson claimed lawyer costs of £150,000 relating to the dispute are likely to rise further still.
The Ibrox Managing Director confirmed the news on Monday whilst speaking at an online general meeting that the figure of £150,000 related to the lead up to the end of last season.
Clubs were warned, however, that the final bill which is set to be paid from SPFL income could come close to seven figures if Rangers and fellow litigants Park’s of Hamilton secure an apology from the league.
The dispute.
The cinch row started last year when Rangers claimed that they were unable to comply with the terms of the contract because they already had an agreement with Park’s Motor Group, the used-car company owned by Gers chairman Douglas Park.
The SPFL then devised a new deal with cinch through an independent arbitration process, which gave Rangers no obligation to show the firm’s branding but their attempts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful.
Rangers believe they have been fully vindicated by the events and want to press further action against SPFL big-boys heads of chief executive Neil Doncaster, chairman Murdoch MacLennan and legal advisor Rod McKenzie.
Nevertheless, the SPFL are confident that clubs attending the meeting will find no discrepancies in how the deal was made.
Although, if clubs find the SPFL to be at fault then the legal costs Rangers have put into question will only rise further causing even more problems.
In other Rangers news, van Bronckhorst is “finished” at Ibrox.