according to an article in the
times we could face punishment from the football authorities.
From The TimesJune 15, 2007
Jordan turns his attention to Charlton in wake of court victoryKaveh Solhekol
Simon Jordan has threatened to report Charlton Athletic to the FA for the alleged “tapping-up” of Iain Dowie after the High Court ruled that the former Crystal Palace manager had lied when he negotiated his way out of his contract in May 2006.
Speaking to The Times from his home in Marbella, the Palace chairman described Dowie as “an empty vessel making a lot of noise” and described his court victory as a good day for football. If found guilty of encouraging Dowie to break his contract with Palace, Charlton, who were relegated from the Barclays Premiership last month, could have points deducted or be fined.
“I am going to talk to my lawyers about it because this case is not concluded yet,” Jordan said. “Some people said that I had no case, some people said that I was on a fishing expedition, some people said that I was running out of money — but I don’t care, I launched the case because I believed that I had been lied to.”
Dowie, who is now manager at Coventry City, left Palace on May 22 last year after telling Jordan that he wanted to work closer to his family home in the North West. Eight days later, after having signed a compromise agreement that waived the Coca-Cola Championship club’s right to £1 million in compensation if he joined another club, Dowie accepted an offer to manage Charlton — seven miles away from his former office.
Yesterday Mr Justice Tugendhat ruled that Palace entered into the compromise agreement, freeing Dowie from his contract, on the basis of “fraudulent representations” by the manager. Jordan will return to London on Monday and is likely to be in court next Friday, when he expects the court to award his club significant damages. “My costs are about £400,000 and I imagine his are the same, so one would assume that it is incumbent on him [Dowie] to bear my costs and then pay damages,” he said.
Although the judge’s verdict is likely to send a clear message to players and managers that contracts are worth the paper they are written on, Jordan denied that he had launched the action as part of a crusade to clean up the game. “It was a matter of principle,” the 39-year-old millionaire said. “I was in the stand for three days and they tried to discredit me as an individual and question my character and paint me out to be a tyrannical bully. I am certainly not an uneducated or vulgar individual. I will stand with the best.”
Charlton refused to comment last night on Jordan’s threat to report them to the FA, but the club said in a statement that they were pleased that the court “had accepted that Dowie was not interviewed by Charlton before May 23, after he had left Palace, which was the position we maintained all along”.
Dowie stated last summer that he had “no contact” with Charlton before he left Palace and that the first conversation he had with them was two days later, but subsequent disclosure of his mobile phone bills during the case revealed this to be untrue.
Dowie, who was dismissed by Charlton after only 15 matches in charge last November, said that he was hugely disappointed with the outcome of the case. “The whole experience has been a very testing time but it is not something I will allow to destroy my determination to succeed at Coventry,” he said. “I will not allow this episode to dent my enthusiasm for the game and if anything, it will only serve to strengthen my resolve.”
Yesterday’s verdict completed a hat-trick of court victories for Jordan, who won an injunction to prevent Steve Bruce jumping ship from Palace to Birmingham City in 2001 and who hit the headlines last October when Tara Stout, a former girlfriend, was found guilty of harassing him.
“I have a 100 per cent record in court and my lawyers have got a very good client,” he said. “If the client is consistent and honest it makes life a lot easier for lawyers. We stuck to the facts and the judge found in our favour.”
Comments
with regards to any tapping up. I daresay Charlton did have a 'word' with Dowie but all this ruling establishes is that Charlton interviewed him after he left Palace. There is little more than that for the FA to go on and with their track record with Jordan I doubt they will bend over backwards to assist him with this crusade regardless of whether he is right or not.
Yes, but unfortunately we all know he doesn't have any sense...
It may of course not be up to him. Presumably the FA could decide to investigate the matters anyway?
...And you know what the FA are like.....scary!
;o)
You're right though. Just thinking about that tosser makes me want to vomit!
We don't come out of it smelling of roses as it also seems likely that Murray had given Dowie a nudge that we would be interested if he left palace. A tapping up charge would be difficult to make stick as it was pretty clear that Murray's first contact with Dowie was after he was pretty sure he was leaving even if at that point he hadn't signed the compromise agreement. Especially as it seems that judge accepts that a preliminary meeting with a manager under contract does not constitute an illegal approach as it is simply establishing if any approach was worthwhile.
I think Dowie will get stung for big costs and compensation (although this may depend on how much money he has made since he left palace) and he may be pinning his hopes on a counter suit that Jordan also breached the compromise agreement by publicly slagging Dowie off (there was a clause about making statements that would damage dowie's business or reputation).