Rangers ready to reap rewards after striking new Sports Direct deal
Dave King declared Rangers' long-running dispute with Mike Ashley over after announcing he was going into business with the Sports Direct chief.
Rangers chairman King has signed a new 12-month retail agreement - which replaces the club's controversial seven-year agreement with the retail giant - to bring to an end two years of acrimony.
And it will cheer boss Pedro Caixinha as he looks to close the gap on Brendan Rodgers' rampant Celtic, after King said the new contract will provide a significant boost to the club's coffers. It is understood Rangers could be around £5million better off because of the new deal.
King found himself in conflict with billionaire sports retailer Ashley after he forced out the old board which was backed by the Englishman.
But he now believes the Light Blues can return to "normalised" commercial dealings after confirming he had signed off on a surprise new partnership with the Newcastle owner.
The pair's legal teams have faced off across the courtroom on numerous occasions since King grabbed power at Ibrox back in March 2015.
Now, though, the pair are partners after King successfully persuaded Ashley to rip up their existing agreement and replace it with a fresh one-year pact.
That old deal - which sparked a kit sale boycott by fans - earned the Glasgow giants just 7p from every pound spent in club shops and severely hampered their ability to match their Old Firm rivals in the spending stakes.
But King now hopes the Ibrox faithful will once again flock to buy jerseys after insisting the new partnership will see "by far the largest part of the profits coming to the club, substantially so".
It will also save Rangers hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal bills after both sides agreed to walk away from their costly court showdowns.
The nine-month negotiation process, led by club secretary James Blair, was finalised a little more than an hour before King called a press conference on Wednesday to announce the deal.
"It is the end of the dispute with Sports Direct," King said. "It's the single most important thing that has happened to the club since regime change. It is that significant for the club.
"All litigation has been terminated with each party paying its own costs. So essentially we walk away with a complete new arrangement.
"I said previously that I was looking forward to the day when I could say to the Rangers supporters, 'Go buy your kit, it is in the interest of the club'. Finally today I am in a position to do that."
King confirmed Rangers will wear last season's Puma home kit again in the coming campaign, although there are hopes new change strips can be rushed out. He also said the club will be free to renegotiate the deal again in a year's time or look elsewhere.
But he does not foresee Ashley - who owns an 8.9 per cent stake in the club - increasing his Rangers stake.
King said: "The agreement indicates a thawing (in relations with Ashley) in the sense if you go back a year, the approach of Sports Direct was they were going to enforce the agreements whether (we) liked them or not.
"The fact they have been willing to enter into good-faith negotiations, albeit difficult negotiations, would certainly show a level of thawing.
"But I think I can say fairly certainly that that will not consequentially lead to an increased investment from Mike Ashley in the club."
Rangers will also regain full ownership of the club's logos and badges after they were controversially handed to Rangers Retail Ltd - a joint venture set up between the club and Sports Direct - by Green.
Asked what had been done to bring about the change, King added: "I think it got to a stage where Sports Direct thought it was probably in their interest as well to look at terminating or at least renegotiating the existing arrangements.
"The only other alternative quite frankly given our clear position was to continue to litigate. That was not good for the club, it was costing us legal fees.
"It was costing us access to retail profits. Rangers has traditionally always been number one in Scotland and prior to the Premier League Rangers was the most profitable retail operation in the UK, including Manchester United.
"We just got to a point with discussions with Sports Direct and Mike Ashley where we said, 'Let's just see in the interest of both parties if we can find a way of working together'.
"We can now take a lot of the energy that had gone into fighting the Sports Direct fight and put it into driving the club forward.