JORDAN BLASTS FOOTBALL
EXCLUSIVE by AIDAN MAGEE
SIMON JORDAN today delivers the most damning verdict ever on the crumbling state of the beautiful game.
In an explosive, no-holds barred exclusive interview, the controversial Crystal Palace chairman fires both barrels at Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Coleen Rooney, Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini, greedy agents and even long-suffering football fans.
Jordan has finally decided to walk out on football as the game descends into a bickering war over players’ inflated contracts, lack of loyalty, greed, corruption and arrogance — culminating in Manchester United superstar Ronaldo’s absurd claim that he is being treated 'like a slave'.
As the angry 40-year-old multi-millionaire businessman prepared to sell his Championship club to the highest bidder, he:
BRANDED Ronaldo a 'silly little boy' who should be made to do as he’s told.
INSISTED Chelsea star Lampard is not worth £150,000 a week.
ACCUSED FIFA president Sepp Blatter of being a 'bloody idiot'.
BLASTED UEFA chief Michel Platini’s incredible arrogance.
SLAUGHTERED Wayne Rooney’s showbiz WAG Coleen McLoughlin’s image as a role model, claiming she is just a plain little girl from Liverpool.
VILIFIED soccer agents as being 'nasty, evil, pointless scum'.
“The reality is that football is a bulls*** world - an insidious, insipid, egotistical, greedy, self-motivated game,” stormed Jordan.
“And the problem is that NOBODY is going to change that.
Wrong
“You read on the front pages of newspapers about people unable to sell their homes and heading for the bread line - but you read on the back pages about footballers turning down £150,000-a-week offers!
“If you get 60,000 people singing your name every week, you lose touch with reality.
“Footballers live on an island called ‘Football World’ where everything they do is right and everything that is said about them is wrong.”
Ronaldo has infuriated Jordan with his constant hankering to quit Old Trafford and sign for Real Madrid — despite still having four years left on his Old Trafford contract.
And Jordan declared: “The Ronaldo thing is about the fact he wants to go to Spain.
“But I’m sorry, little boy, you signed a five-year contract and you’re going to do as you’re told.
“He can sulk and pout and sit there with his earplugs in, looking pretty, for as long as he wants.
“But if he’s not playing first team football for United, he’s going nowhere - so he’ll pretty soon come in line, get back in the team and will be doing as he’s told.”
FIFA chief Blatter - the most powerful football man on the planet — infuriated Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson by insisting United were treating £120,000-a-week Ronaldo like a slave, an incredible comment which the Portuguese winker agreed with.
And Jordan added: “One thing that should change is the football establishment’s attitude towards footballers.
Arrogant
“If Sepp Blatter said what he said then he’s a bloody fool.”
Jordan is also disgusted that Chelsea’s England midfield star Lampard, 30, is continuing to hold out for a mammoth £150,000-a-week deal at Chelsea.
“There is not a footballer or any kind of sportsman on the planet worth £150,000-a-week,” he said. “I can tell you a few surgeons who are - but no sportsman.
“The more I watch this ‘Planet Football’ and see the back pages dominate the front pages and people like Coleen McLoughlin - who is just a plain little girl from Liverpool - set up as role models, I think to myself: ‘What the hell is going on?’
“Michel Platini is going in front of the European Union to identify six sports which should have a special exclusion from human rights.
“But I look at it as another example of how arrogant football is - that it thinks it is above everything else.
“It thinks it’s above every other worker and industry in the world - because it’s football.
“When I leave football you will never see me involved in another club.
Nutter
“The moment the door of Selhurst Park hits me on the a***, I will not be coming back.”
Jordan admits being disillusioned with the game even before he was pushed over the edge by an FA tribunal’s decision to award Palace just £700,000 compensation for youth player John Bostock following his controversial transfer to Tottenham last month.
Jordan has become one of the most outspoken personalities in football since buying Palace out of administration eight years ago at the age of 32, which made him the youngest chairman in the Football League.
He made around £40m after selling his firm The Pocket Phone Shop to the Carphone Warehouse and immediately pledged to have the South London club back in the Premier League within five years.
But it did not take long for him to grow tired of the way football is run.
He directed plenty of his venom at players’ agents, who he believes are responsible for many of the ills of the modern game.
With Jordan now spending most of his time at his villa in Marbella, the Palace chairman leaves all transfer negotiations to chief executive Phil Alexander and director Kevin Watts.
“Agents are nasty scum,” he said. “They’re evil and divisive and pointless.
“They only survive because the rest of the sport is so corrupt and because leading football club people employ their sons in the job.
Power
“In my opinion, no owner in their right mind would willingly invite an average agent into his academy, any more than a brothel owner would let a syphilitic nutter into his whorehouse.
“If an agent does a good job for me then I will pay him - but I don’t deal with players’ agents or agents employed by other clubs.”
But, amazingly, Jordan also took a pop at the long-suffering fans who have to dip further into their deep pockets every time a player agrees a new contract.
He insists the fans’ expectations increase the pressure on clubs to go after the best players and that in turn, hands all the power to the men in the dressing room.
“The public keep on chanting players’ names and wanting better players,” he said.
“The only time they’ve had enough is when the players play badly.
“Fans wonder why they have to pay £50 for a kit for their son - but the price is that because they’ve been clamouring for their better players.”
