Simon Jordan floats Rangers defence after merchandise price fixing fine as he makes 'two sided argument' case

Pundit Simon Jordan has pitched a defence of Rangers after they were sanctioned by the Competition and Markets Authority for fixing the prices of certain club merchandise.

The CMA issued fines totalling at £2million to Rangers Football Club, Elite Sports and JD Sports after they were decided to have broken competition law when they fixed the retail prices of a number of Rangers-branded replica kits and other clothing products from September 2018 until at least July 2019. The UK Government watchdog stated the Scottish Premiership side took part in the alleged collusion, but only to the extent of fixing the retail price of adult home short-sleeved replica shirts from September 2018 to at least mid-November 2018, with a £225,000 issued.

The sanctions were raised by Jim White on talkSPORT after all three parties admitted to acting illegally which helped "bring a swifter resolution to the CMA’s investigation." Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan admitted he could see "the flip side of the argument".

He said: "It is naughty in some respects, because it's down to competition and the consumer gets the benefit when they are priced the way you want (the retailer) and you can choose the product at a better price than someone else, and that is the purpose of competition. The flip side of the argument, of course, is that people should be able to price things for what they want.

"What JD wanted to do was price it at £60 and so did Rangers. There was an organisation, I suspect, who wanted to price it slightly differently.

"I suspect they forced them by distribution leverage, because JD Sports would have been a significant distributor of Rangers shirts, Rangers of course would be a significant distributor of shirts direct. So they