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MIKE Ashley has launched a legal move to have Rangers chairman Dave King thrown in jail.

The Daily Record understands Ashley has gone to court accusing King of breaching a gagging order forced on the Ibrox board by his firm Sports Direct.

The Newcastle United owner’s lawyers insist King breached that ­injunction in July when he filmed a TV interview with Sky Sports’ Jim White.

During the chat at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, King confirmed he was in talks with Sports Direct over contracts signed over by the previous Rangers regime.

Ashley’s lawyers have also asked London’s High Court to fine Rangers for allowing King to go in front of the cameras. Legal papers have been served on King’s co-directors Paul Murray and John Gilligan.

The bitter feud between the Ibrox club and Ashley had raged behind the scenes for six months until last week.

It exploded into the public eye when King released a statement insisting the legal fight against Sports Direct will continue despite ­spiralling costs.

We can now reveal the full extent of the fall-out which Ashley’s advisers believe should lead to King’s arrest and trial on a contempt-of-court charge.

In May the Record exclusively revealed that King’s board were furious to discover a seven-year notice period in the ­commercial tie-up agreed between Sports Direct and former Ibrox chief executive Charles Green.

We told how King planned to expose further details of those secret deals in June at a Rangers general meeting. Ashley had called the meeting to demand the return of a £5million crisis loan.

This enraged Ashley, who reacted by going straight to the High Court’s chancery division to take out an interim injunction preventing King from spilling the beans.

On the same day, in Edinburgh’s Court of Session, Rangers lawyers agreed to abide by the High Court decision.

Now Ashley’s lawyers argue King broke the terms of that gagging order the following month when he welcomed Sky Sports to his home, to conduct a bizarre one-to-one with White.

During that interview King spoke about his desire to restructure the club’s commercial contracts with Ashley’s firm and warned of a mood of mounting unrest among the club’s fans.

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Sports Direct run Rangers’ official shops and have sold £8million of merchandise in the last two years.

King said: “They are very concerned that, by buying Rangers replica kit or other memorabilia, they are supporting Sports Direct more than they are supporting Rangers.”

King alluded to a potential meeting with Ashley’s people when he said: “The question is, can we go along to Sports Direct and say, ‘You have a contract with Rangers Football Club. The terms of the contract are such that, for whatever reason, it’s not working for Rangers and we believe it’s not working for Sports Direct’.”

Ashley’s lawyers believe his comments represent such a significant breach of the gagging order’s conditions and that King should be imprisoned.

A source said: “Ashley’s legal team describe this sort of stuff as confidential information and argue that the ­company’s reputation could be ­irreparably damaged by any such leaks.

“They believe King did this quite deliberately as an attempt to force a renegotiation of commercial contracts and therefore must be found in contempt of court.

“They want to see him hammered for it and the club given a hefty fine into the bargain.”

The interim injunction is still in place and will remain so until the court decides on another legal move by Sports Direct to have King’s regime gagged on a permanent basis. Ashley’s legal team have also demanded Rangers cover all the costs of his court action.

Anti-Ashley campaigner Craig Houston, of fans’ group Sons of Struth, wants Rangers supporters to boycott all Sports Direct stores.

(Image: SNS GROUP)

He said: “I was made aware that Ashley was attempting to have King arrested and fine our directors a few weeks ago.

“I have always wanted Rangers fans to know what is going on in our club and am glad today’s news will give all Rangers fans another glimpse of what is going on.

“It was exposed in the last set of accounts that our club receives 75p for every £10 spent on club merchandise.

“Our directors have been stating for some time that they are trying to obtain a better deal from Sports Direct and I would urge all fans to think before spending any money on merchandise.

“Purchasing a stadium brick or a couple of match day programmes would see more money going to our club than buying a jersey. Obviously the more fans spend in the shop, the less likely he is to renegotiate the contract.

“As fans we hold one important ace card – our cash. He wants it and I would urge all rangers fans to keep it from him. We have taken on bullies before and won. We won’t sit idly by any longer.”