[Politics] Question Time tonight - Join me in a game of Simon Jordan bingo

SollysLeftFoot said:

What's warranted him a place on QT...

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Easy 10 said:

Jordan is worth listening to.

"Do I regret saying football's a 'bullshit world full of bullshit people'? It's a statement that's followed me around since I made it last season. I probably could have put it better, and while some took it well - Freddy Shepherd phoned to say 'Hi, it's one of the tossers here' - others definitely didn't. One in particular took real delight in Palace's relegation, telling me as much to my face. But do I regret the sentiment? Not even slightly.

I first came across agent Leon Angel when I sacked Trevor Francis in April 2003. I told Trevor we could do a simple deal on his compensation very quickly just between us, but warned that if he brought in an outside influence - an adviser - it could take a lot longer. Trevor engaged Angel, and four months later we were still talking.

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The next time I saw Angel was in May this year, exactly a week after our relegation, walking on to our training ground. He'd arranged a meeting with Iain Dowie to tell him that Andrew Johnson, who'd always insisted he wanted to stay at Palace, wanted to leave. I joined the meeting. Would we give him a mandate to find a buyer, Angel asked?

He didn't get one. After a summer of what I found to be completely divisive interventions from Angel, I finally managed to get Andy on his own last week, away from the agent. Andy's a sensible young man, who knows what he's worth as an England striker. He has a good relationship with his employer - an agent's worst nightmare - and we did a deal on a new contract in five minutes.

Angel had previously written me a letter to say he was disappointed to read in the press that I'd said some bad things about him, that I'd said he'd sought to undermine the relationship between the club and the player. He said he'd never sought to get a mandate. I nearly fell off my chair. I wrote a letter back imploring him to take me to court so I could put it all in the public domain.

I just don't believe his behaviour was right. I've reported him to the FA for what I believe is a contravention of Fifa regulations - you cannot represent more than one party in a transaction. I've also banned him and his organisation from Selhurst Park and from the training ground. Johnson was encouraged to believe he'd have no chance of making the England team if he stayed at Palace. Sven disagreed. So Angel's considering legal action against me? Good. Can't wait.

This isn't a personality thing with me, a control thing or any sort of vendetta. I've said before I'm not conducting a crusade against agents - just against bad agents and bad practice. I see so many of them happy to sow division if it means they get a better deal, often working against the interests of clubs, players and supporters - and yet the game still opens its arms and embraces them. It's a problem on both sides: agents out to bleed the game dry supposedly in their client's best interests, and egotistical, irresponsible officials who are more than happy to roll over and let them.

Angel's far from the only agent I've dealt with who I'd put in the problem category. And some deserve a category all of their own. Enough's been written about Paul Stretford over the past year, but it's worth adding just a little bit more.

Wayne Routledge, now at Spurs, came to be a Stretford player after he went on an England youth tour. It turned out one of the other boys' parents was on Proactive's payroll. So I send a 17-year-old boy who I've looked after for three years away with England, and he comes back with an agent. Instead of the PFA advising him and looking after his financial and footballing interests - all the factors that go into career development - his advice is all coming from Stretford. A couple of years later, he's refusing a new contract, and he's left the club.

Does it surprise me that Paul Stretford's in the position he's in today? Where, after the court case over the right to represent Wayne Rooney, his professional reputation is in tatters and his personal safety has apparently been threatened? No it doesn't. If you dance with the devil you better know what tune he plays. No one should end up being threatened with violence, but his antics, as revealed in court, are, how to put it, highly debatable. I have no surprise that he's in this predicament, and I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

There are plenty of agents who work well, who do a decent job for a very large reward, and who know if they treat people like me fairly, will be treated fairly in return. I have shares in one agency that I know works constructively: it doesn't make me a hypocrite, it makes me someone who can see the clear distinction.

So what am I asking other chairmen to do? In fairness, many don't need asking. I may be the mouthpiece - the one lighting the blue touchpaper - but some chairmen do take the same line as me in refusing to deal with the divisive operators, albeit more quietly. Others, though, are a huge part of the problem. It's mostly those who haven't put their own money into clubs - people such as David Gill at Manchester United. If Gill's salary was index-linked to the amount he spends on agents, United's agent fee bill last year wouldn't have been £5.5m.

And what am I asking the authorities to do? To make agents transparent, regulated, controlled. They shouldn't be allowed to divide clubs and players, and give players bad advice, driven by the desire to line their own pockets. It's also nonsense to suggest adults can't negotiate for themselves.

By standing up and making statements like this, and by acting against certain agents and groups, I'm going against the grain and I'm taking a risk that people won't want to deal with me or with Palace. I regret it may already have cost us the chance to sign Tim Cahill last summer: when his agent asked me to pay him £125,000 - for what? - I was stunned.

But what's the alternative? Sit back, do a Peter Ridsdale and let them take me as a patsy, as a mug? Agents made a fortune out of Ridsdale, and almost destroyed Leeds. I'm passionate about Crystal Palace and I know I'm acting directly for the well-being of the club by making a stand. Three years ago we put an injunction on Steve Bruce when he tried to walk out, to make the point that contracts mean something. Sometimes you have to fight these battles, and hope that the precedent you set will catch on.

Some people dismiss all this, telling me I should be living in the real world - that bad agents are as much a part of the game as spitting, diving and cheating. What a great real world that is. A world where players such as Rio Ferdinand are advised to reject £100,000 a week. A world where players get paid a basic salary for turning up to work, appearance money for doing their job, goal bonuses for doing their job well and a loyalty payment for staying for one year of a four-year contract?

This isn't the real world - it's a banana republic. And if people in the game can't see that - and think things can't get any better, fairer or more decent - God help us."

Simon Jordan, Observer column, 7th Aug 2005

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

Bill Archer is unavailable.....

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SollysLeftFoot said:

What's warranted him a place on QT...

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GT49er said:

He's not a corrupt, self-opinionated w*nker from the House of Commons?

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Bry Nylon said:

Tim Martin sounds like he has spent all night in one of his pubs...

Oh, and I wish Fiona Bruce would stop continually interrupting the panelists. She is turning out to be a poor choice for this programme.

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Hugo Rune said:

He comes across as nasty, bitter and totally self interested.

And his face looks like an @Dickhead photoshop job!

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Bry Nylon said:

Tim Martin sounds like he has spent all night in one of his pubs...

Oh, and I wish Fiona Bruce would stop continually interrupting the panelists. She is turning out to be a poor choice for this programme.

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heathgate said:

Just like Emily Maitlis and Emma Barnett on their respective tv and radio progs..



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