An attempt by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct to get Newcastle United to sell next season’s jerseys in its stores has failed.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has unanimously rejected the retailer’s application for an immediate injunction to end the club’s exclusive deal with JD Sports.
Sports Direct, run by former Newcastle owner Ashley, had claimed competition would be damaged by the move, which would have seen Newcastle’s kit for the 2024/25 season sold exclusively in the club store and on JD Sports.
The retailer can still take the club to court at a later date, the court said in its judgment on Friday.
Sports Direct’s lawyers previously said stopping the “home of football supplies” from selling cheaper jerseys would harm supporters, but the court ruled this was a “neutral factor” in its decision .
Newcastle’s kit is currently made by Castore, but the club will drop the British company next season after entering into a “multi-year partnership” with Adidas.
Court documents said “there was no reasonable or legitimate expectation on the part of Sports Direct as to the continuity of supply to Castore”.
“To suggest that there was some obligation on Newcastle United FC and Adidas to ensure in their agreements (i.e. between the club and Adidas) that supply to Sports Direct was maintained over time represents a significant impediment to, not a strengthening of, competition,” the three-person panel said in a written judgment.
The ruling added that the refusal of the injunction made “a speedy trial more, not less, urgent.”
“We expect rapid (and, ideally, agreed) proposals from the parties, failing which the Tribunal will, as soon as possible, make its own proposals,” he said.
