A judge has ordered the administrators of a sports wear brand embroiled in a kit sales dispute with Rangers to pay a £350,000 legal bond to cover the club’s legal costs.

Lord Braid ordered lawyers for Elite Sports Group Ltd to pay the sum ahead of its Court of Session action against the ‘Gers later this year.

The judge made the decision at Scotland’s highest civil court after hearing legal submissions during a procedural hearing on Wednesday.

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Elite’s lawyers are pursuing an action against Rangers and are trying to recover £9.5 million from the Glasgow side.

Elite were the exclusive brand partner to Danish sportswear firm Hummel and it instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh last November.

Lawyers claim the ‘Gers breached a contract which allowed the firm to provide the Glasgow team to provide it with kits.

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Lawyers for Elite say the breach occurred when Rangers signed a deal with Castore, a Manchester based brand which counts tennis ace Sir Andy Murray as one of its investors.

However, Elite went into administration shortly after the case called in Scotland’s highest civil court.

The administrators for the firm are pursuing the action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

On Wednesday, Rangers’ advocate Gavin MacColl KC asked for Elite to lodge a £440,000 caution with the court. Caution is pronounced “Kayshun”  and is the Scots law term given for a payment made into court to provide cover for legal expenses. Mr MacColl said the sum would cover the cost incurred by Rangers of preparing its case.

Elite’s advocate David Thomson KC opposed Mr MacColl’s request.

He said the sum being sought by Rangers was excessive as the club asked in March 2024 for a £300,000 caution payment.

Mr Thomson said a £155,000 caution payment had already been made by Elite and that £120,000 of that had been spent by Rangers on preparing on a financial report.

Mr Thomson said that Elite should pay £180,000 caution. The advocate said this sum reflected the original March 2024 caution request but with the £120,000 cost of the expert report deducted from it.

However, Lord Braid decided that the circumstances of the case meant that Elite should pay £350,000 caution payment.

The judge added: “It seems to me to be a reasonable compromise at this stage.”

The case being brought by Elite arises from a separate legal dispute involving Sports Direct, which was then owned by Mike Ashley and Rangers.

Lawyer for Ashley’s firm went to the High Court in London seeking an injunction to stop the deal between Elite and Rangers from going ahead.

The deal, which was signed in October 2018, was supposed to allow Hummel to supply the ‘Gers with kits and to sell replicas to fans.

However, Judge Lionel Persey QC found that the deal with Hummel, to be a three-year contract worth £10 million, was undertaken without giving Sports Direct a chance to match it.

Judge Persey ordered that Rangers couldn’t “wear any Official Rangers Technical Products designed by, supplied by, gifted by or manufactured by Elite or Hummel, or bearing the Hummel brand”.

Castore is the official technical kit partner of a number of leading teams and athletes including Rangers, McLaren Racing, Newcastle United, England Cricket, US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Andy Murray.

The brand sells into more than 90 countries globally and was valued as being worth £750 million in September 2022.

The court has previously heard how Rangers signed a deal with Castore in May 2020 and that this deal breached the terms of the Hummel one. The agreement was reported to be worth £20m and covered five-seasons.

Mr Thomson told the court that this new deal caused Elite to sustain losses which it needed to be compensated for.

Rangers are contesting the action.

At a earlier hearing, Elite won a bid to force Rangers to disclose sales data to them on kit sales.

Mr Thomson told Lord Braid that he and his colleagues needed to see such information as it would help them prepare their case and see how much they should claim for in compensation.

He told Lord Braid: “It is the pursuer’s case that the rug was effectively pulled from under them. It is clear that Rangers entered into an agreement which they didn’t perform.”

On Wednesday, Mr MacColl said the sum of £440,000 being sought was to cover Rangers’s legal expenses.

He told the court that the club is spending £85,000 on solicitors fees. He said that the fees of the advocates acting in the case were £115,000.

The court heard that the club had previously spent £120,000 of money on a report which had been prepared by a financial expert. However, this expert would not be giving evidence and the club needed to spend another £150,000 on getting another financial expert to prepare a report.

Mr MacColl said he expected to use information from the original report in the main court hearing.

The club was also expecting to pay another £50,000 on a “joint expert meeting” which would result in it having a further “consultation” on matters involving the case.

Rangers was also expecting to pay £35,000 to £40,000 on “accommodation” and “direct attendance” costs for the case.

Mr Thomson said the caution request made by Rangers had increased by £140,000 in just one month.

He said: “It is a surprising turn of events.”

Mr Thomson asked for the caution sum to be limited to £180,000.

However, Lord Braid refused to grant the request. He did allow Elite to pay the caution in two different payments - one payment of £175,000 is expected to be paid to the court in 14 days with the second payment to be made six weeks from the start of proceedings.

The case will call in August 2024.