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. The footage, which was seen by the Sunday Times, triggered a regulatory investigation and ultimately led to fines of almost £5m from the competition watchdog and Cowgill being ousted from JD Sports. Ashley said he was not “hiding from the fact” that he wanted to topple Cowgill. The billionaire said in an interview with the Financial Times that Cowgill “shouldn’t have been in the car park and maybe I shouldn’t have been in the bushes”, adding later that associates in his employ had recorded the video. “No one is perfect,” he said.…