Ex-Rangers chairman Dave King blamed for Player family legal fight

Marc Player has broken his silence on the bitter multi-million dollar legal battle between he and his golf legend father Gary, blaming former Rangers chairman Dave King for his “mailicious interference” in the matter.

Last week, we reported that Gary Player was awarded $5million and the rights to both his name and likeness back from a company operated by his son Marc.

As first reported by the Associated Press, court documents filed in Florida showed the 84-year-old golfer – one of only five players to have completed the career grand slam – reached a settlement with the South Carolina-based Gary Player Group last month as the dispute was being arbitrated.

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Marc Player, 60, operates the group. He is one of Player’s six children and his eldest son.

Initially, little was said about what caused the fall-out. 

However, a statement published by the Gary Player Group this evening has shed new light on the matter.

Confirming the award of $5m to Gary Player, as well as the rights to his name, it reveals that the Gary Player Group has a counter claim in excess of the arbitration award against the nine-time major winner.

This claim, it says, could not be considered by an American arbitrator as he has “no power or authority to obtain the supporting financial information from South African, thereby opening a counter claim by the Gary Player Group, Inc. in a South African court”. 

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The Group further alleges that Gary Player has so far refused or declined to fully disclose his earnings in South Africa to “enable a financial reconciliation of the respective accounts owed between the parties”.

According to Marc Player, the man to blame for all of this is Dave King, who, earlier this year, ended his five-year reign as chairman of Rangers FC.

“It is with great sadness that both my personal and business relationship with my father has deteriorated to the extent that it has,” said Marc. “Anyone that really knows me would agree that I have always tried to help my parents with everything from the business to their personal lives. 

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“This has been a long, tiring, costly, emotional and tedious process pitting father against son. I have genuinely tried to reconcile with them and amicably resolve our dispute and it is a shame that we have not been able to do so due to their new advisor, Dave King, and his malicious and continuous tortious interference in what should have been a private family matter.”