RANGERS are taking on the SPFL over their £8million title sponsorship deal with car sales company cinch.
SunSport can reveal league chiefs are in a legal dispute with the
Ibrox club over the £1.6m-a-year contract.
Douglas ParkCredit: The Sun
As part of the five-year agreement, clubs must prominently display the company’s logo at games.
That includes the Cinch branding on the shirt sleeves of jerseys and on interview backdrops.
However,
Rangers faced Livingston at Ibrox without Cinch appearing on their shirts or around the stadium.
There was also no player named the ‘cinch Man of the Match’, as agreed by every other club in the country.
It’s believed Gers and the SPFL have been in talks over the issue for weeks regarding “the fulfilment of rights obligations”.
But Rangers, whose chairman Douglas Park owns a car sales business, have pinpointed issues with the contract.
It’s understood Gers’ lawyers are convinced they are within their rights to refuse to comply and are refusing to back down.
Crucially, the issue is being watched closely by other Premiership clubs, leaving SPFL supremo Neil Doncaster under pressure to find a solution.
League chiefs and Gers were remaining tight-lipped on the fall-out last night for fear of prejudicing their legal fight.
A Rangers spokesman would only say: “This is not a matter for Rangers to comment upon. It is an SPFL matter and we would ask you to approach them if you want a comment.”
The development comes just days after Gers MD Stewart Robertson accused the SPFL of underselling Scottish football.
Robertson said: “There’s several areas where the SPFL could be doing more and could be better.
“When you look at the television deal we’ve got in place with Sky — and Sky are fantastic partners, so no criticism of Sky whatsoever — we have undersold the product.
“We need to market Scottish football in a much better way than we do.
“The SPFL as a league is only getting £25m for 48 league games? How can we say that we’ve sold it well?
“That’s been undersold and that’s a key area where I believe the SPFL executive need to be looking to do better.”
cinch are understood to be furious about this latest controversy.
They struck a record deal to replace Ladbrokes as title sponsors after lengthy talks.
League bosses described the contract as the ‘biggest ever’, with clubs earning £1.6m a year over the next five years.