Departing Rangers chairman Dave King has taken a swipe at Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley after announcing his decision to step down from his role at Ibrox.
Rangers have been embroiled in a legal battle with Ashley’s Sports Direct over sales of replica kits [Scottish Sun] and right now it does not appear as though there is any kind of conclusion in sight.
After confirming that he will leave the Rangers boardroom early next year, King admitted that Ashley’s attempts to have him jailed was one of the worst moments of his time at Ibrox.
“We continue to be bedevilled by Sports Direct’s ongoing legal assault to retain influence over our retail activities,” King said, as quoted by the Telegraph.
“We will continue to fight our corner to ensure that Sports Direct does not benefit from what I consider to be its ongoing bad faith in dealing with our club.”
He added: “Mike Ashley’s attempt to have me committed to jail for speaking ill of Sports Direct in a TV interview was certainly a low point.”
OPINION
It just goes to show that it is not only Newcastle fans who have noticed what kind of person that Ashley is. It goes beyond him being a bad football club owner, he’s just not a very nice person. Yes, businessmen need to be ruthless but kicking a club repeatedly while they’re down and trying to have their chairman sent to jail is just a low blow. Rangers fans will no doubt be happy with what King has achieved at Ibrox as he heads for the exit. He’s overseen a real change in fortunes that now has the Gers on level pegging with Celtic, a good squad of young players and a young manager in Steven Gerrard who is bound to go far in the game. Newcastle could do with someone in the boardroom like that. In fact, anyone will do as long as it’s not Ashley and his cronies.
