Sports Direct gets curiouser and curiouser and it is surely time the lack a finance director is addressed at the retailer.

Sports Direct gets curiouser and curiouser.

It has emerged that strategic development director Jeff Blue has left the sports giant, although he will remain employed until the end of March.

The departure of a director might not be especially noteworthy in itself but at Sports Direct, scheduled to update later this week, the top tier of management is perhaps starting to look light on bench strength.

Most surprisingly, the retailer has been without a finance director for a year, two months and counting.

“It’s hard to think of a similar situation at any company of a similar status”

George MacDonald

It was back in December 2013 that Bob Mellors stood down. At the time of the interims last December the retailer reported a search was ongoing. Sports Direct said then: “We are undertaking a thorough process to ensure we appoint the most suitable candidate.” Thorough is the word.

There is no suggestion that the absence of a finance boss at Sports Direct is having anything of the sort of effect that lack of financial oversight had at Tesco. The likelihood is that other members of the team – including Blue – have stepped up to the plate perfectly well.

However, the retailer is a FTSE 100 constituent and it’s hard to think of a similar situation at any company of a similar status.

Maverick founder

Sports Direct is an atypical business in many ways. Maverick founder Mike Ashley still controls most of the shares.

It’s quite right that his influence is felt. It was he after all who pretty much single-handedly built the retailer from the ground up, operating for many years as a sole trader.

But his unpredictable ways surely make it all the more essential for other shareholders that the business is seen to do the right thing.

Over the last year there have been all sorts of unusual, even unfathomable, developments such as the complex share deals involving department store group Debenhams and embattled grocer Tesco.

Then there was the administration of USC, admittedly a tiny part of the Sports Direct empire but its collapse was troubling.

As a public company Sports Direct must put a finance director in place soon.