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JJB founder Dave Whelan has waded into the spat between the company's chairman Sir David Jones and Newcastle United's billionaire owner Mike Ashley.
The row concerns a loan of £1.5 million that Ashley, the founder of JJB's great rival Sports Direct, made to Jones for private purposes.
Some say the loan represents a clear conflict of interest for Sir David.
The timing of the loan is the key issue. Ashley claims Jones requested it after taking the JJB job; Jones says it was definitely before.
Whelan says Ashley is "trying to blacken" Jones's good name. "Jones took the loan in good faith and he [Ashley] has leaked the documents," Whelan told Retail Week.
JJB is now threatening Ashley with legal action, demanding a public apology for his comments.
There is no love lost between Whelan and Ashley.
The Sports Direct man instigated an investigation by the Competition Commission into the price retailers were charging for replica football shirts several years ago.
Whelan famously said to Ashley at the time: "There is a club in the North son, and you are not in it," a reference to the close links between Sports Direct's great rivals JJB and JD Sports.
