[Trusevich]

The Guardian illustrating the one-sided nature of the retail deal here:

A Guardian analysis of the Rangers accounts suggests that the club’s joint venture with Sports Direct, Rangers Retail Ltd, has paid the Scottish championship team dividends of about £559,000 since the deal came into effect almost four years ago. During that time, the Rangers store has taken more than £13m through its tills from fans, while a previous retail deal with JJB Sports saw the club receive an initial payment of £18m, with a guaranteed minimum annual royalty of £3m.

Over the same four-year period, the accounts also suggest that Sports Direct was paid three times Rangers’ dividends, totalling about £1.8m. On top of those payments, it has also earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from the joint venture for providing retailing services. Despite the difference in the amounts received by each party, Rangers owns 51% of Rangers Retail, while Sports Direct holds the remaining 49%.

The agreements between the pair also include:

•    A seven-year notice period to break the contract
  
•    A confidentiality agreement that binds Rangers but not Sports Direct
  
•    Obligations for Rangers Retail to buy stock at a “higher cost than its retail value”
  
•    A clause allowing Sports Direct to force Rangers out of its shareholding in Rangers Retail if the relationship between the club and the retailer is “deadlocked”
  
•    A further clause that forced the football club to pay Sports Direct £620,000 for closing down two former Rangers stores in Glasgow and Belfast
  
•    Zero upfront payment to Rangers for awarding the retail deal to Sports Direct in 2012
  
•    A controlling vote for Sports Direct on “financial matters” concerning Rangers Retail
  

For 11 months of last year, Rangers lost control of Rangers Retail after the club handed over 26% of the subsidiary’s shares to Sports Direct as security for a loan. During the time Rangers had a minority interest, the accounts show a £300,000 dividend paid to the football club, which suggests that Sports Direct received £900,000. The club now holds 51% of Rangers Retail again after repaying the £5m debt.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016...t-rangers/