The Scottish football club Rangers FC have refused to sport the Scottish Premiership’s sponsor on their sleeve patches. The Glasgow based team have refused from wearing the logo of the league’s title sponsor Cinch. Rangers FC have not worn the sleeve patch since their first match against Celtic in August up until September 25th.
The Scottish Premiership’s title sponsor, Cinch is an online car sales company based in the UK. It has recently signed an £8 million deal with the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) to be its title sponsor. As per the terms of this agreement, teams will have to wear their logo on their sleeve patches.
However, Rangers FC have refused to sport the logo. Not only this, but they have also denied giving advertisement spaces to Cinch at their home stadium and won’t be naming the brand sponsored man of the match award. Rangers FC President Douglas Park himself owns a group of the car business and that’s why they are not agreeing. They are citing a rule from the SPFL rulebook that they don’t have to oblige to a sponsorship contract “if to do so would result in that club being in breach of a contractual obligation entered into prior to the commercial contract concerned.”
“The Executive of the SPFL [is] required to carry out effective due diligence before entering into its contract with the new league sponsor,” said Rangers FC in an official statement. “Instead, an inadequate and antagonistic approach appears to have been adopted; one that it is hard to imagine is in the best interests of the SPFL’s member clubs.”