Mike Ashley: I was behind Peter Cowgill’s JD Sports downfall
Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley has admitted he masterminded the infamous car park footage leak that brought down his arch rival, JD Sports’ boss Peter Cowgill.
Cowgill, who was executive chairman of JD Sports, quit the sportswear retailer in 2022 after being fined by the competition watchdog over a car park rendezvous with the boss of Footasylum.
JD Sports had been in the process of acquiring Footasylum, and the footage leaked to the Sunday Times showed its chief executive, Barry Bown, speaking to Cowgill in the front seats of a black Mercedes.
The two companies were barred from sharing commercially sensitive information, and the leak caused the two firms to be dealt nearly £5m in total fines by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
‘He knew what I was going to do’
Ashley, the Sports Direct founder who had long been Cowgill’s rival, has admitted for the first time that he organised and leaked this footage.
He told the Financial Times: “He shouldn’t have been in the car park and maybe I shouldn’t have been in the bushes.”
The billionaire clarified that the footage was obtained by one of his employees.
Ashley said he was not “hiding from the fact” that he was plotting Cowgill’s downfall: “He knew what I was going to do: so then why did he do it?”
Sports Direct, which Ashley founded in 1982, was the UK’s biggest sportswear retailer, fuelled by discount pricing and ruthless expansion.
But JD Sports emerged as a challenger after the turn of the century, capitalising on booming demand for athleisure and forging strong relationships with giant brands like Nike and Adidas.
JD Sports battles declining sales
Ashley said he still has respect for his old rival: “God, Peter acted with so much risk. Because he was so determined to win.
“Peter is exceptionally good. He was the biggest and best competition by a country mile. […] JD Sports would have struggled in this market [regardless] but he would have done a better job,” he told the FT.
JD Sports has struggled since Cowgill’s departure, and said on Thursday it is bracing for a period of “muted” growth amid weak consumer confidence and potential Iran war costs.
The sportswear retailer shut 24 stores in the UK in the last year as it battles with falling sales and a “tough consumer backdrop”.
Former chair Andy Higginson quit the firm last month after failing to convince the board to oust divisive chief executive Régis Shultz.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group owns a high street empire including House of Fraser, Boohoo and Jack Wills.
Ashley, the former owner of Newcastle United FC, recently upped his stake in build-to-rent giant Grainger and took a near-six-per-cent holding in German sportswear titan Puma.