Moreover, further failed legal action meant Ashley was required to pay the legal costs of the SFA and Dave King following a failed bid to overturn the decision that King was a "fit and proper" person from April 2016. Despite standing down from the board of Rangers Retail in June 2016, the club's joint merchandising venture with Sports Direct, Ashley refused to relinquish his grip over Rangers retail operations. After reaching an impasse in its attempts to renegotiate the retail agreements with Sports Direct, a stand-off ensued between the retailer and Rangers, with the latter withdrew removing rights to use the club's intellectual property which would impact on the sale of Rangers new Puma football kits. Despite the club withdrawing permission to use its trademarks, which effectively halted the sale of kits, Puma released the 2016–17 kits at the beginning of August. This led to the board to consider replacing the Puma kits with an alternative. The contract with Rangers Retail reportedly earned the club only four pence from every pound spent on merchandise and was highlighted as a reason for Rangers' weak financial performance. On 31 October 2016 it emerged that Ashley lodged a counter-suit against Rangers, King and director Paul Murray, with initial proceedings regarding the case being heard at the High Court of Justice in March 2017. The board released RIFC's annual accounts on 28 October which revealed annual losses had been halved to £3.3m and turnover increased to £22.2m; however, further funding was required to maintain the business as a going concern. In March 2017, following a complaint by former Rangers chairman David Somers, the Takeover Appeal Board ruled that Dave King had been acting in concert with other investors during King's March 2015 boardroom takeover. This meant that King was liable to purchase all of the shares in RIFC, with the TAB setting a price of 20p per share. A few days later, RIFC revealed an operating profit of £300,000 in unaudited results for the six months to 31 December 2016, although this equated to a pre-tax loss of £278,000. Rangers fan groups Rangers Supporters' Trust, Rangers Supporters Assembly and Rangers First merged to form Club 1872 in late May, and two weeks later it announced that the new organisation had purchased enough shares to make it the sixth-largest shareholder in RIFC. Harmony did not last for long amongst the support, however, as three directors