10:27 am, June 16, 2022
A long-running row involving Cinch and Rangers has ended with the Scottish Premiership team claiming victory.
The online used car disruptor began an £8m five-year deal with the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) as the main backer of Scotland’s top four divisions last June.
But Rangers had refused to display Cinch branding on their strips or at their stadium as chairman Douglas Park has his own second-hand car business – Park’s Motor Group.
They said it conflicted with a commercial agreement already in place with Park’s.
Now the Light Blues have been left out of a fresh sponsorship title deal negotiated with Cinch by the SPFL.
The new deal is effective immediately, with Rangers ‘no longer required to participate by providing the sponsorship inventory that they have so far not provided’, said the SPFL.
It added that the tweaked agreement ‘protects Cinch’s pivotal investment into Scottish football’ and that ‘the overall income to Scottish football is expected to remain materially unchanged over the original five-year term of the sponsorship’.
The Ibrox club, however, believes the updating of the contract is an admission by the SPFL that it was wrong to stand against Rangers over the issue.
A spokesperson for Rangers said: ‘This is a full vindication of our stance throughout the past season and further highlights wide-ranging concerns regarding the corporate governance of the SPFL.’
Cinch and the SPFL, however, were putting a positive spin on things from their side.
Avoiding any reference to Rangers, a Cinch spokesman said: ‘We welcome the evolution of our agreement with the SPFL and are proud of our continued investment into Scottish football across all four Cinch SPFL leagues.
‘We are very much looking forward to next season and to continuing the stellar growth of our business in Scotland.’
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: ‘It’s extremely good news that we have been able to work with our partners at Cinch to develop an updated sponsorship package which delivers the same level of financial support to Scottish football, whilst providing additional SPFL media assets to Cinch to compensate for the loss of Rangers-related rights.
‘It is testament to the strength of our relationship with Cinch, and the high value they place on it, that they have agreed to move forward with us on this basis.
‘This deal gives us further confidence that we will exceed our budget and deliver fees to clubs of more than £27.5m for season 2021/22.’
Murdoch MacLennan, chairman of the SPFL, added: ‘This is a great outcome for the entire game in Scotland. Our friends at Cinch have been brilliant to deal with throughout this whole process.
‘There is so much to celebrate in the SPFL as Cinch and our clubs look forward with excitement to the launch of the 2022/23 fixture list this Friday.’
