Sports Direct hits back at Goals Soccer Centres after heated AGM
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct has escalated its war of words with Goals Soccer Centres just days after coming to blows with one of the troubled firm’s directors at a tense investor showdown.
The retail tycoon’s sportswear firm has launched a bombastic attack on a senior figure at the five-aside football operator today, having made a failed attempt to oust its directors at an annual general meeting (AGM) late last week.
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A spokesperson for Sports Direct, which is the largest shareholder in Goals, has branded non-executive director Chris Mills as “arrogant” and “belittling”, hitting back at Mills after he reportedly told a Sports Direct representative to “f*** off” at the AGM.
Mills, the second biggest shareholder of Goals, was responding to calls from Sports Direct’s head of strategic investments, Liam Rowley, for directors to take a lie detector test over a £12m accountancy blunder.
“We are not going to be insulted and bullied by a minority shareholder,” Goals said in a statement after the AGM.
However, in response to the comments last week, a spokesperson for Sports Direct said today: “Maybe when he [Mills] climbs down from his ivory tower and opens his eyes and ears he will realise this whole episode is a catastrophe for the company, its shareholders and indeed all its stakeholders and Chris Mills and the rest of the board needs to explain itself with extreme urgency.”
They added: “We also have no doubt the board will be spending a relative fortune on advisors and believe that if any gross negligence (or potential fraud) doesn’t bring the company down, the last bits of working capital will be spent on advisors to wipe out shareholder value instead.”
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The latest tussle comes amid a row between Sports Direct, owned by retail tycoon Mike Ashley, and Goals over a major accounting error discovered in March that forced the firm to suspend trading.
Sports Direct has demanded Goals employs an investigator of its choice to probe the error, but Goals has said it has already hired a division of accountancy firm BDO.
Last week the row between the two sides came to a climax when Sports Direct made an audacious attempt to push out the board of Goals Soccer Centres.
Sports Direct voted against the re-election of the board members, but all resolutions passed, defeating Ashley’s efforts.