Mike Ashley is taking Newcastle United to court again over Sports Direct snub

Mike Ashley is once again dragging Newcastle United to court to the Competition Appeal Tribunal over the club's move to not allow Sports Direct to stock the new kit.

Inject this directly into my veins.

Sports Direct owner and former custodian of our beloved club, Mike Ashley is stamping his feet and spitting his dummy out over the fact that Newcastle United and Adidas will not be supplying Sports Direct with next season's replica kits.

Honestly, this is the level of pettiness I think we can all get behind. It's absolutely beautiful and I haven't stopped grinning since I found out about it, so huge thanks to @NUFC360 on X for bringing this to our attention.

Newcastle and Adidas have signed an exclusivity agreement with JD Sports

The paperwork for the court case can be found online and it outlines that Sports Direct, part of the Frasers Group, are claiming damages after Newcastle United and Adidas have signed an exclusivity agreement with rival company JD Sports as a third-party retailer of next season's replica kits.

The Club has abused its dominant position in the market for the wholesale supply of Newcastle United replica kit in the UK, in breach of the prohibition in Chapter II of the Act, by refusing to supply Sports Direct with the Club’s replica kit for the 2024/25 season and granting JD Sports, another UK sports retailer, exclusive rights as a third-party retailer of the Club’s replica kit (alongside only the Club’s and Adidas’s own channels), thereby foreclosing Sports Direct from the downstream retail market and eliminating effective competition on that market.

We don't expect that this one will end well for Mr Ashley as surely the club, Adidas and JD Sports will be more than familiar with the regulations to which they are referring and will have ensured that any deal would hold up to scrutiny thereof. And even if not, it's just funny to watch Mike Ashley cry on.

He can't say he doesn't deserve it

Quite frankly, it's no less than he deserves after systematically draining the club to fund his Sports Direct empire in his 14-year tenure at St James' Park. Sorry, at the Sports Direct Arena. Case in point.

Ashley ran all the club shop merchandising through Sports Direct and then, when Castore came on board, he handed control over to them. Now Newcastle, as part of the Adidas deal that comes into effect at the end of this season, are bringing all the merchandising back to the club which means the revenue generated goes directly into the club's coffers and therefore eases the stranglehold of FFP or whatever that is to become.

It honestly just seems at this point that Amanda Staveley and Co are just out to toy with Mike Ashley in any way they can and we're 100% here for it.