Firms fined for fixing prices fans pay for Rangers FC merchandise

GazzaLegemd said:
Agreed mate, the blood lust against the current board is over the top, I’m still in the place I’m still with the current board, only just but they need to read the room and start taking serious action in repairing relationships now. My minI synopsis was intended to provide some balance and wait for clarification.
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The club has literally admitted to fixing prices of merchandise in order to ensure the support were railroaded into paying a set price. The fact that people are desperately scrabbling about to defend that is mind blowing. It is absolutely no wonder at all that other folk are mightily pissed off about that, and feeling that they are having their loyalty leveraged against them, by a cynical, unresponsive and frankly disdainful board.

If the individual who did this, and we know someone did because the board have admitted it, is still at the club then serious questions need to be asked and answered. If the current board are completely innocent of all of this, then they need to say so and point the finger at whoever is at fault. It was either gross incompetence by a minion not understanding competition laws and who is therefore not suitable to be in a role that allows this to happen or it was a wilful decision by someone who DID know the ramifications and carried on regardless. Either deserves a sacking.
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
The club has literally admitted to fixing prices of merchandise in order to ensure the support were railroaded into paying a set price. The fact that people are desperately scrabbling about to defend that is mind blowing. It is absolutely no wonder at all that other folk are mightily pissed off about that, and feeling that they are having their loyalty leveraged against them, by a cynical, unresponsive and frankly disdainful board.

If the individual who did this, and we know someone did because the board have admitted it, is still at the club then serious questions need to be asked and answered. If the current board are completely innocent of all of this, then they need to say so and point the finger at whoever is at fault. It was either gross incompetence by a minion not understanding competition laws and who is therefore not suitable to be in a role that allows this to happen or it was a wilful decision by someone who DID know the ramifications and carried on regardless. Either deserves a sacking.
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Agree. The post you quote from me was a follow on from my earlier post below. I think we are both saying the same thing?

There clearly is levels of liability across the 3 parties involved but even if the club wasn’t directly involved but knew this was happening, i still have a major issue with that. If the board didn’t have sight of this and it was someone at a lower level within the commercial department, I expect heads to roll. At face value at the very least, this is unacceptable and shouldn’t stop at answering to the courts. The fans deserve and explanation.

Edited to,add: it may well be that the club played no part on this but have been fined for lack of corporate governance, I don’t know but they need to tell us.

Also see post #277 from me:
Bennet needs to get his arse in front of a camera, do a proper interview and explain the clubs involvement in how and why the fans were blatantly exploited once again. If there are mitigating circumstances, let’s hear it, until then, I won’t be buying another thing. This is so disheartening to see.
 
Yet more proof, if it were needed, that successive boards view us as nothing but cash cows.
Probably raised at the AGM to be met with snarling contempt.
 
Add this to the shocking pricing for CL tickets and you can't fail to see that the board are ripping the pish and playing on the loyalty of the support.
 
I mean, a blind man can see the board see the fan base as nothing but a cash cow to be milked. And boy will they milk it.

And it will continue. You just need to look at this thread and folk defending them colluding to rip off fans to see that some folk have well and truly drunk the kool aid.
 
Blue boy said:
Theres no doubt that the board have been successful in their OWN field of work.
But its came to pass they cannot run a football club.
The fan boys and friends of the board on FF need to wake up.
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So, how about giving us your names and ideas on who and how they should take over the club.
Very easy to criticise without solutions.
 
SPRINGBOKS said:
So, how about giving us your names and ideas on who and how they should take over the club.
Very easy to criticise without solutions.
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I can only look at whats happening, its up to the board to sort it.
Start by growing a set and sacking Ross Wilson and Stewart Robertson.
Or do you want to keep them?
I pay my money so i can criticise all i want.
 
This board are insistent on taking the lady's front bottom out of the fans at just about every opportunity they get, it’s beyond a joke at this point.
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
The club has literally admitted to fixing prices of merchandise in order to ensure the support were railroaded into paying a set price. The fact that people are desperately scrabbling about to defend that is mind blowing. It is absolutely no wonder at all that other folk are mightily pissed off about that, and feeling that they are having their loyalty leveraged against them, by a cynical, unresponsive and frankly disdainful board.

If the individual who did this, and we know someone did because the board have admitted it, is still at the club then serious questions need to be asked and answered. If the current board are completely innocent of all of this, then they need to say so and point the finger at whoever is at fault. It was either gross incompetence by a minion not understanding competition laws and who is therefore not suitable to be in a role that allows this to happen or it was a wilful decision by someone who DID know the ramifications and carried on regardless. Either deserves a sacking.
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100% agree with this
 
It's not a good look at ultimately another %^*& up by the people at the top at Rangers. Do wonder when the people who genuinely care about the club and supporters are coming in.

However, the fact that Ranger's and some sales partners putting the price of a shirt up by a couple of pounds has been made to look massively worse in the media that the abuse of children over decades then the cover up is a bit mental. Just goes to show how scared or in the pocket the media are with Celtic and how little fear our board can strike into them.
 
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
1/4 of a million almost is still a chunk of money and wrong doing on our part.

We’ve been caught being involved in fleecing our fans. There’s no great way to spin it
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We were trying in a dodgy Dave style way to maximise our income. Football at our level is too expensive for us. We need every penny and football fans are a prime source of income for all clubs. If you want cheap tickets and cheap merchandise then you'll be watching us losing the league and getting cuffed in the conference in Europe every year. Fleecing fans is 100% required and we are the same as every other fanbase.
 
TerrySilverLoyal said:
Damn

Almost 10 percent of a new roof
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It’s 2030… we’ve just renewed McGregors contract and been turned down by Davis due to a fake hip transplant and the board issue a statement to bring calm to the ravenous hordes of fans…..

”We set out to make signings but we had a £225,000 fine in 2022 because the fans wanted to pay a £5 more for their shirts than they should have, and it’s impacted our cashflow this season despite winning £178 million on the euro millions. We hope to have Arfield sign an extension shortly.”
 
Its alright we will recoup the money with the upcoming Castore: “Piss take never stops” range.
 
Can I just say that I pine for the days when all that was required of me was to turn up at Ibrox, buy my Evening Citizen colour souvenir, match programme, sing my heart out for Rangers and go home celebrating a victory.

Not once did I even think about the running of the club, Rangers were just there, and to me, would be there forever.

Happy days :(
 
onedadoprso.1 said:
You have got this all wrong. It has nothing to do with the crooks and everything to do with a real rangers board profiteering off the rangers supporters. Totally unacceptable.
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I am genuinely not that bothered. What constitutes totally unacceptable to me, is the Australia debacle and how out of touch that was. An extra fiver for a top when we needed to make back money from years of being raped by the crooks? I can at least understand that.
 
kevfromkent said:

Firms fined for fixing prices fans pay for Rangers FC merchandise​

The CMA has imposed fines totalling over £2 million on Elite Sports, JD Sports and Rangers FC after they admitted to fixing the prices of certain Rangers FC merchandise.
From:Competition and Markets AuthorityPublished27 September 2022

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that Elite Sports and JD Sports broke competition law by fixing the retail prices of a number of Rangers-branded replica kits and other clothing products from September 2018 until July 2019. Rangers FC also took part in the collusion but only to the extent of fixing the retail price of adult home short-sleeved replica shirts from September 2018 to mid-November 2018. All 3 firms colluded to stop JD Sports undercutting the retail price of the shirt on Elite’s Gers Online store.
Elite Sports has been fined £459,000, JD Sports £1,485,000 and Rangers £225,000. The penalties include a settlement discount, reflecting resource savings to the CMA as a result of all 3 parties admitting to acting illegally and helping bring a swifter resolution to the CMA’s investigation. Elite Sports’ and JD Sports’ penalties also include a discount for coming forward with information about their participation in the illegal conduct and cooperating with the investigation under the CMA’s Leniency Programme.
Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of Enforcement at the CMA, said:

During the time of the infringement, Elite was the manufacturer of Rangers-branded clothing and also sold Rangers-branded products directly through its Gers Online store and later in bricks-and-mortar shops in Glasgow and Belfast. The only UK-wide major retailer selling those products at the time was JD Sports.
The CMA’s investigation found that Rangers FC became concerned about the fact that, at the start of the 2018 to 2019 football season, JD Sports was selling the Rangers replica top at a lower price than Elite, which was seen at the time as the club’s ‘retail partner’. This resulted in an understanding between the 3 parties that JD Sports would increase its retail price of the Rangers adult short-sleeved home replica shirt by nearly 10%, from £55 to £60, to bring it in line with the prices being charged by Elite on Gers Online.
The CMA also found that Elite and JD Sports – without involvement from Rangers – colluded to fix the retail prices of Rangers-branded clothing, including training wear and replica kit, over a longer period. This included aligning the level and timing of discounts towards the end of the football season in 2019, to avoid competition between them and protect their profit margins.
More information can be found on the case page: Suspected anti-competitive behaviour in relation to the pricing of Rangers FC-branded replica football kit.
www.gov.uk

Firms fined for fixing prices fans pay for Rangers FC merchandise

The CMA has imposed fines totalling over £2 million on Elite Sports, JD Sports and Rangers FC after they admitted to fixing the prices of certain Rangers FC merchandise.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk
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Does that mean we’re now due a fee from Elite? Were they not with holding money we were owed pending the result of this case?
 
SPRINGBOKS said:
So, how about giving us your names and ideas on who and how they should take over the club.
Very easy to criticise without solutions.
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This is a very simplistic way to look at it, so this lot are shite so tell us who would replace them or shut up and keep paying your fees.

Do you believe this lot the only people on the planet with deep pockets who would want to own / run the club??

What they can do is start to the process for exiting the club and see who is in the market that has the vision to take the club forward.

There has been chat of Hong Kong investors and I am sure there would be a line up of other possible suiters.

Until such times as the shares / ownership was up for sale you wouldn’t know who was all interested.

The current lot are miles out their depth and go from one screw up to the next
 
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As someone already pointed out had this been the spivs doing this place would be going tonto.This board has now created a divide between themselves and supporters that no amount of fan media interviews will mend.They seem to stumble from one blunder to the next with no heed being paid to the fans.
 
Blue boy said:
I can only look at whats happening, its up to the board to sort it.
Start by growing a set and sacking Ross Wilson and Stewart Robertson.
Or do you want to keep them?
I pay my money so i can criticise all i want.
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You want rid of the board but you want the board to sort out out. Same board or replacement board and replaced by WHO?
 
Williem2 said:
This is a very simplistic way to look at it, so this lot are shite so tell us who would replace them or shut up and keep paying your fees.

Do you believe this lot the only people on the planet with deep pockets who would want to own / run the club??

What they can do is start to the process for exiting the club and see who is in the market that has the vision to take the club forward.

There has been chat of Hong Kong investors and I am sure there would be a line up of other possible suiters.

Until such times as the shares / ownership was up for sale you wouldn’t know who was all interested.

The current lot are miles out their depth and go from one screw up to the next
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I'm not arguing the point of the board performance, I'm just not sure that we have any deep pockets waiting to take over or even wanting to take over. Very few came forward in our darkest days to help.
Be careful for what we wish for.
 
PT98 said:
It's utterly pathetic and embarrassing the way some people refuse to criticise anything to do with the way our club is being run
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Exactly. Doesn’t matter who did what it actually happened. Our club was involved in ripping us off.

Club should apologise and tell us how this won’t happen again. This should be a big issue for fans. Big opportunity for the club as well to show fans they do care.
 
SPRINGBOKS said:
You want rid of the board but you want the board to sort out out. Same board or replacement board and replaced by WHO?
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Most of them on here know it all and could run the club no problem! They could probably run the country at the same time. Absolute wizards most of them have all the answers and of course a never ending supply of millions to make us into the super club they all crave. Bunch of spoiled know it alls!
 
SPRINGBOKS said:
I'm not arguing the point of the board performance, I'm just not sure that we have any deep pockets waiting to take over or even wanting to take over. Very few came forward in our darkest days to help.
Be careful for what we wish for.
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I understand the hesitancy and the thought process around better the devil you know, the concern about who would take us on due to previous folk that have been there and also the lack of options in our darkest days.

I have similar concerns but…..

I would like to think the business in a much more attractive option, all the crazy HMRC liabilities are gone, we are financially in a better place, we have proved a player trading model (a little) and I personally think we would be a very attractive option.

I am not anti-board even though some of my posts might suggest otherwise, I don’t dislike these guys and want to hate on them. I am very grateful for what they have done, what they salvaged, the position they have us in and they will go down in history for what they have done.

But, in any business you need to be able to take businesses forward, you need to be able to continually evolve and improve, you need to have the hunger to want to do it and you also need to have the skill set to take a business in different positions to the next level.

There is no questioning these guys business know how, there business experience in their chosen sectors, they are successful and wealthy businessmen and credit to them.

To the best of my knowledge none of them have a sports back ground or experience developing a football club, I have lost faith in their ability to take the club forward, I feel now they are not the right people to be running the club and need to be looking at who can take the club / business forward and planning for their exit.

Again, to give them their credit if they do exit I believe they will complete due diligence on the buyer and ensure the buyers motive is right and their desire to take the club forward being a massive driver on who they sold to and not just the biggest offer.
 
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