Sports Direct founder says people in his employ recorded footage of Peter Cowgill meeting another retail boss
The Sports Direct founder, Mike Ashley, has admitted to arranging surveillance footage that brought down his rival Peter Cowgill, the former JD Sports chair.
Cowgill was secretly filmed in 2021 in a car talking with the Footasylum boss Barry Bown. JD Sports was in the process of acquiring the trainer retailer at the time and the two companies were not allowed to share commercially sensitive information.
So Ashley’s been playing private eye to take down his competition—pretty ruthless, but I guess that’s how he built his empire.
Secretly filming a rival’s meeting? That’s a massive invasion of privacy, even if it exposed a possible breach of competition rules.
Can’t believe Cowgill was dumb enough to discuss sensitive stuff in a parked car where anyone could be listening—or filming.
JD Sports spent millions on that Footasylum deal only to have it blocked—Ashley knew exactly what he was doing leaking that tape.
Crowd atmosphere can genuinely lift a team when they need it most. (91bc33)