Sports Direct’s controversial retail deal with Rangers – which has made the Old Firm club only about 4p from every £1 spent in its Ibrox store – was signed by club representatives with a “clear conflict of interest”, according to the chairman of the Scottish football team.

In a statement on the one-year anniversary of a boardroom coup that ousted directors connected to the Sports Direct founder and Rangers shareholder, Mike Ashley, the chairman, Dave King, took aim at the club’s joint venture partners and former creditors who attempted to have him jailed before Christmas.

King said: “It is unfortunate that it required the repayment of the expensive so-called ‘interest-free’ loan [from Sports Direct] before we were able to give notice on the agreement with Sports Direct or to take legal action to protect the club’s interests and seek restitution.

“This bizarre state of affairs was caused by poorly negotiated agreements prior to regime change during which personal interest was put ahead of those of the club. Additionally, some of the individuals negotiating on behalf of Rangers had a clear conflict of interest.”

The comments mark the latest exchange between the two warring parties after Sports Direct backed down from its legal battle with the football club and abandoned legal efforts to prevent disclosure of the pair’s joint venture last month.

A Sports Direct store. Rangers has made only about 4p from every £1 spent in its Ibrox store after deal with retailer. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

A high court judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith, called Sports Direct’s court case a “ridiculous piece of litigation” – a further blow to the the sportswear retailer that had previously failed to have King found guilty of contempt of court and sent to prison following allegations he had violated a gagging order.

That interim order was imposed last summer, blocking Rangers from publicly revealing details of its agreement with the retailer, which contains swingeing clauses and was already subject to commercial confidentiality agreements.

A Guardian analysis of the Rangers accounts last month suggested that the joint venture with Sports Direct, Rangers Retail Ltd, had paid the Scottish Championship team dividends of about £559,000 since the deal came into effect about four years ago. During that time, the Rangers store had taken more than £13m through its tills from fans, while a previous retail deal with JJB Sports saw the club receive an initial payment of £18m, with a guaranteed minimum annual royalty of £3m.

Over the same four-year period, the accounts also suggest that Sports Direct was paid three times Rangers’ dividends, totalling about £1.8m. On top of those payments, it has also earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from the joint venture for providing retailing services. Despite the difference in the amounts received by each party, Rangers owns 51% of Rangers Retail, while Sports Direct holds the remaining 49%.

The agreements between the two also include:

A seven-year notice period to break the contract



A confidentiality agreement that binds Rangers but not Sports Direct

Obligations for Rangers Retail to buy stock at a “higher cost than its retail value”

A clause allowing Sports Direct to force Rangers out of its shareholding in Rangers Retail if the relationship between the club and the retailer is “deadlocked”



A further clause that forced the football club to pay Sports Direct £620,000 for closing down two former Rangers stores in Glasgow and Belfast

Zero upfront payment to Rangers for awarding the retail deal to Sports Direct in 2012

A controlling vote for Sports Direct on “financial matters” concerning Rangers Retail.

Sports Direct could not be contacted to provide comment in time for publication.