
Tottenham 'to sue Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos over termination of Grenadier sponsorship deal'
Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly taken High Court legal action against Sir Jim Ratcliffe 's Ineos.
The Telegraph claim that court records show that Spurs filed a commercial claim against Ineos Automotive Limited on Thursday.
No documents are available but it is understood that the claim centers around a contractual dispute .
The United co-owners made an early exit from their sponsorship deal with Tottenham earlier this year after it was reported that a pay-off agreement was reached.
The north London outfit and Ineos had previously agreed a lucrative five-year deal back in December of 2022 to promote the Ineos Grenadier the club's official 4 x 4 partner.
However, the relationship became rather awkward following Ratcliffe's purchase of a minority stake in the Red Devils last year, leaving the petrochemicals giant looking to withdraw prematurely from the deal.
Ineos branding could be seen on the dugouts and advertisement screens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the reported agreement was reached in March.
It was believed that Ineos would be paying a 'not insignificant sum' thought to be in the millions in order to bring an end the deal.
However, it appears the matter is not closed with Tottenham lodging their claim on June 12.
The situation looks to be following a similar path to Ineos's attempt to exit early from their sponsorship deal with the All Blacks, who have took legal action over a withdrawal over an agreement not due to end until 2027.
A partnership with Sir Ben Ainslie's America's Cup team was also terminated.
An INEOS spokesperson told the Telegraph that the company exercised a 'contractual right' to part ways with Spurs in December.
'Ineos Automotive has been a partner of Tottenham Hotspur since 2022, taking on a partnership agreement that Ineos Group had in place with the club since 2020,' the statement read.
Ineos became the 4 x 4 partner of Spurs via their Grenadier vehicle back in December 2022
'Like any business, we have to be diligent in how we operate and where we invest marketing budgets.
'It's completely normal for partnerships to be reviewed on a regular basis, and we've decided that the partnership wasn't working out for us. We have the right to terminate the partnership.'
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Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
‘Downsize, make money and have fun': the retirees moving to the city
Claire Carter has been selling country houses for 24 years, and she's noticed a sea change in attitudes. Twenty years ago empty nesters would downsize from a big country house to a village. 'They no longer move to villages, they move to cities,' says Carter, head of country houses at John D Wood & Co. 'They want something that's socially more interesting, with everything on your doorstep.' The dream of retiring to a bungalow in a sleepy seaside town or peaceful village is looking increasingly out of touch. Retiring to a city, after all, makes sense. Public transport in the countryside is notoriously poor, waiting times for GPs in rural areas are terrible and the best hospitals are in big cities. Living near adult children is another draw. Cities are also full of life. Henry Sherwood, founder of the Buying Agents, moved a retired couple from Cheltenham to Islington, north London. 'Their approach was that when you retire you have more time on your hands to do the things you enjoy, so why move to an area where there is less to do?' Older people also have increasingly younger mindsets. 'Most of my clients are older or retired age,' Carter says. 'And they've got Pelotons in the garage. One client, every time I ring him he's playing padel. They're more active, they're more social. It's so different now. It's a whole new life for them. So instead of moving to a bungalow when your health isn't good, they're getting ahead of the game: we're going to downsize, get some money out of this and have some fun.' One of Carter's clients, the empty-nesters John Dryden, 62, and his wife, Louise, 52, recently sold their five-bedroom house in four acres of East Sussex. John retired from running his travel business in November and Louise has retired from catering. In January they bought a three-bedroom, 1,700 sq ft apartment in the city of Brighton & Hove. It has two terraces and overlooks a busy park. They moved in May and have a spring in their step. 'Moving back to a city, it's amazing, it's buzzing,' John says. 'We go down to the park, it's all families, people playing tennis, people walking dogs. Stuck out in the country, we had lots of friends, but you don't always see people day to day.' 'The first night we moved in here, we ordered in from an Indian restaurant, and it was delivered bang! Twenty minutes, beautiful food. Last night we had Thai delivered, we have a Waitrose around the corner, everything is extremely easy.' The couple didn't want to be slaves to their garden. 'We've got seven tennis courts below us now, we're very active, we play padel … And we wanted the buzz: to get back into the bars, restaurants, theatres and exhibitions, cinema. Bring it on.' They've got rid of one of their two cars. 'We plan to cycle more, walk a lot more. We're walking to the supermarket rather than driving.' The average price for a two-bedroom flat in Brighton & Hove in 2024 was £314,400, according to Hamptons. John declined to say what they paid, but came out ahead financially from downsizing, leaving them enough to enjoy retirement and travel. They go abroad every winter and wanted a home that's easy to lock up and leave. And they reckon their flat is 40 per cent cheaper to run than their old house, but also big enough to accommodate their two adult children — and future grandchildren — when they visit. Other retired people are opting for bigger cities. According to a 2023 study by Age UK, there are almost 1.4 million older people (over the age of 60) living in London, the capital's fastest-growing demographic. A 2021 survey found a 15 per cent increase in the number of over-65s retiring to inner London in the past decade, according to solicitors Bird & Co, who used figures from the Office for National Statistics. Over-50s made up 8 per cent of all people moving into London from across Britain in 2022, according to Hamptons and ONS. Leafy outer boroughs like Havering, Bromley and Bexley have the highest percentage of over-60s, but central areas like Kensington & Chelsea and the City are in the top ten. Shaun Hargreaves Heap, 73, and his wife, Lyndsey Stonebridge, 61, recently moved into the heart of the capital. After their children left for university, they sold their five-bedroom house in Norwich, where he has lived for 40 years. In January they bought a two-bedroom, 960 sq ft flat in Bloomsbury for £960,000 from Greater London Properties. • Bloomsbury named one of the best places to live in London 2025 Hargreaves Heap, an economics professor, still works two days a week at King's College London, and his wife still works at University of Birmingham. 'I'm well past retirement age but academics really never stop working,' Hargreaves Heap says. 'Although there were work considerations, we made a conscious choice that we would like to be in central London because of what it offers in retirement. It's very cool for my wife to be able to use the British Library. For me, I can walk to King's, all the major galleries, all the major theatres, museums. And Bloomsbury has an amazing amount of green space, with so many squares. Russell Square is a wonderful place for seeing lots of people enjoying themselves.' They frequent the shops, cafés and restaurants of Marchmont Street and Lamb's Conduit Street (the Italian Ciao Bella is their favourite). And they walk to the Waitrose and Curzon Bloomsbury cinema in the Brunswick Centre. • It's not downsizing, it's 'rightsizing': how to move later in life He couldn't see themselves retiring to the usual retirement enclaves. 'In a seaside village, you just don't have theatres, galleries and museums. As you get older, you sort of appreciate the ability to see what the human species is capable of.' George McKerracher, 65, and his wife, Di, 60 have always been city people. George retired ten years ago from his job as a senior director at Asda, and Di two years ago as chair of a health company. Until recently, they lived in a three-bedroom 1,800 sq ft penthouse with a terrace in the centre of Leeds (it's now for sale for £1.095 million with Zenko City Living). To be closer to family, they've bought a three-bedroom duplex in a listed townhouse in the West End of Glasgow, for which they paid over £800,000. 'Glasgow is a fantastic city,' George says. 'In the West End, the university is there, the botanic gardens, it's a cultural hotspot, with all the restaurants, coffee shops, cinemas. Di and I have breakfast out three times a week. The only thing is it rains 100 days a year, but the airport is a 20-minute Uber ride away.' Why not retire to a peaceful village? 'We're not ready for that. We're still youngsters at heart. We are very active. We've got lots of friends. We walk a lot. We go to the gym three times a week. We travel. We have annual Bupa checks. I don't like the word retirement. When Alex Ferguson retired, he said, I can tell you one thing I'm not going to do: buy a pair of slippers. I identify with that.' • Priced-out, stressed-out creatives are fleeing London for Glasgow McKerragher still dabbles in business and investing. 'But we'd had enough of the cut and thrust and have a whole list of other things that we want to do. If we don't do it now, when will we do it?' Apart from crime, the case against retiring to cities is the high cost of urban property. Carter says her clients usually come out in the black because they are downsizing. 'Most people want to walk away with change, to help the kids out or put a bit in the pension pot, and cover moving costs,' Carter says. 'I had clients who sold a chocolate-box house in the countryside in three acres for £1.8 million and bought a terrace in Clapham [south London] for £1.5 million.' While rural and seaside locations are still the most popular overall for retirees, the retirement home industry is noticing a shift in sentiment. James Lloyd, Director of Policy at Associated Retirement Community Operators, said: 'Integrated Retirement Community operators are responding, with a new trend toward urban developments clearly observable in places like London, Chester and Bristol. While country locations remain popular, we think that in ten years, there will be an Integrated Retirement Community in every town centre.' It's a far cry from the old days. 'Back then, every bungalow that came on the market, you knew who you were selling to,' Carter recalls. 'If I said to some of my clients now, here's a bungalow, they'd laugh at me. That's not what they're looking for. They want something modern, interesting, with more life going on. They're not just downsizing, waiting for the end.'


Telegraph
33 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Duck or block your ears – cricket balls and church bells should be protected
So, no balls in Danbury nor bells in Mytholmroyd. Our councils are having a terrific summer of cancelling, banning and thwarting all things British, especially if they have a slight edge of eccentricity. This week's victims are a cricket team in Essex and the bells of a church in West Yorkshire with, as usual, the actions of the council craven and bowing to the howls of the minority. Danbury parish council didn't hesitate when word came from someone in the vicinity of the Dawson Memorial Field. This is a large patch of land in the village, which lies between Chelmsford and the coastal town of Maldon. There's a bowling green, tennis courts, a football pitch, a playground and a cricket wicket. And it was on May 17 when the incident occurred. It is logged that someone was 'hit by a cricket ball on leg whilst unloading/loading his car'. It was written up, not in the Danbury Cricket Club's scorebook, but in the incident log at the nearby leisure centre. A historical record detailing such instances as dog fouling and faulty locks in the lavatory facilities. The incident took place at 1pm, 10 minutes before play began that day – thus it was a stray ball that travelled during the warm up. And anyone who knows anything about village cricket will understand this involves the informal throwing of balls around the ground for catching practice or some gentle bowling at the opening batsmen. But as soon as Danbury's parish clerk, Michelle Harper, heard the news she acted with the steely force of Martin Brody in Jaws, the police chief who discovers evidence of a shark attack. Except she exerts rather more power than Brody – he was unable, at first, to close the beaches. Ms Harper, however, achieved a suspension of the cricket as confirmed by council chairman, April Chapman this week, who reported that 'a subsequent meeting decided to suspend cricket for three weeks until we had a report from our health and safety advisors as to what mitigations could be taken.' Play is still banned as I write. This weekend there is no leather bouncing off willow, no gentle ripples of applause, no frantic cries of 'yes', 'no', 'wait' or 'howzat'. And, worse, no cricket tea. Doubtless mitigation will suggest vast nets be purchased and installed to prevent further accidents and at a cost too vast for the club to muster… And all this because one unfortunate person, having parked his car, forgot to keep their eyes peeled for airborne cricket balls in spite of the clearest of warning signs. That is, some 22 middle-aged men limping around a field in white trousers and shirts and with an assortment of funny hats. The onus is on the car parker. Indeed, on many occasions when I've played cricket, it has been the aim of batters to attempt to hit sixes – not just for the runs, but in order to smash the windscreens of the flash idiots who have parked their expensive Land Rovers by the boundary. Yet eschewing tradition and common sense, the council rules in favour of the not-terribly-injured party. And while it's a limb in Essex, it's the ears of some locals in West Yorkshire. The bells of St Michael's church in Mytholmroyd have been stopped by order of Calderdale council, who has issued a noise abatement order silencing them until such a time as someone can figure out how to stop them chiming between 11pm and 7am. The Victorian church installed its bells in 1875 when a new clock was unveiled. They were cast by Mears of London and commissioned after a huge fundraising effort to raise £650. On May 29 of that year, at precisely five minutes to six in the evening, one Mrs Ridehough set the clock in motion to the applause of the assembled fund-raising committee. And since that day, four quarter bells have chimed every 15 minutes with another bell tolling on the hour. Until now. Until some whinger, in the birthplace of poet Ted Hughes, found sympathy in a council pen pusher who decided to silence them. The cost of installing a device to prevent the night-time bells will doubtless be prohibitive. While those who found the church chimes comforting, who revel in this mad little sound of England, have their sensibilities ignored. Perhaps the complainers should find somewhere else to live, somewhere altogether more modern and, possibly, rather warmer than Mytholmroyd with its above average rainfall due to the precipitation-inducing Pennines. They could pop off to the Middle East with its gleaming buildings and sunshine. And, oh, the frightful din of the muezzins shrieking out their calls to prayer five times a day from dawn to dusk.


BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
Smith's brace helps Leeds beat Wolves
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