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Who Agrees???Submitted by old skool pete on 20 July, 2008 - 11:46.
Simon Jordan has today come out with a damning interview in the News Of The World about everything Football, & I for one absolutely agree with what he says, the modern game & it`s "associates" are totally out of control but what can be done to repair the game we love, because if it stays on the path it`s on then where will it be in 10 years time? Will we be expected to pay £150+ to watch a game live? Here`s the interview. . . 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.
“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.
“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.
“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 slime slimebags,” 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.
“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. . . So what do you think can be done to begin to repair the game we love, I think wage capping would be a good start, it would even the playing field some what, what do you reckon??? COY27DaysToGoIrons
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Depressing reading Pete but
Depressing reading Pete but so Bloody true. As Dave says down below something has to give and an Implosion seems the most likely. I will always love West Ham but do fear for the Club and the game if the current trends continue. Justifying the expense of travelling to matches with my lads is getting harder to do with each season that passes. I am guilty of splashing out on kits for my Boys as I love seeing them in the Claret & Blue especially with our holiday coming up but changing the kits every season is taking the piss. The Chairman of all the Clubs need to make a stand against the Players and their Agents, if you sign a 5 year contract then you are expected to stick to it, no one has held a gun to their heads. It made need someone to be made an example of by letting them sit in the reserves but will it ever happen and will they just go behind each others backs and snap are the players concerned?
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If anyone can make a difference it's Fifa but that Blatter P%%T aint going to save the soul of football anytime soon.
Salary caps cannot ever work in a free-market economy league like the Premiership. It can only function in sports where there are franchises that are all created equally and ultimately owned by the league themselves. Then you can limit their incomes as the league own everything. Never gonna happen. What probably will is a major crash and I can see a couple of big(ish) names going properly bust.
Salary Capping. I don't know if it is appropriate to compare different codes in different countries or not, but here in Oz, at the elite level, with the local code (Australian Rules), they run with a system of salary capping. The odd individuals try to circumvent the rules but for the most part it is very well policed and appears to work well. Like English football, there are some very wealthy clubs and also some very poor clubs. Some decades back, the administrators of the game saw the correlation with wealth and success on the field emerge and sought to fix the problem. They did - with huge success. Salary capping and a system of drafting players were the tools they used. Ever since, the game has prospered magnificently; attendances continue to grow, each season's competition is relatively even and currently there are plans afoot to increase the number of teams/clubs in the national competition by around 12%. It is, undoubtedly, a great success story. In the face of very strong competition the game is doing exceptionally well. Football (soccer), in this country, throughout history has been the 'poor relation' in footballing codes. This is now changing and the game is growing at a pace not seen before - its growth has been phenominal in recent years. As an aside, I reckon you may well see the socceroos as regulars in the world Cup as a direct result. A change in the national structure of the game and the employing of 'Salary Capping' are seen as the major reasons for this turnaround. Salary Capping and its peripheral arguments provide a rather large and complex debate, but it is definitely worth having. It's not one for the F.A., it really is one for EUEFA. Cheers, Bill
*high 5* I watch a lot of Australian soccer, and have a socceroos shirt an all, but yanno, the Aussie league is much more evenly balanced hence more competitiveness, making it better to watch.
God! I wish I had a socceroo shirt. Any chance of me borrowing yours?
Onto other matters Mrs L.N.; it is a fairly well known 'secret' that Mr. L.N. plans to buy/establish his own club here. There has even been talk that he might play in his own team.
Does this mean we can expect to see you in these sunny climes as well? And which position will you play in? ;-)
Well I'm like a size 6 (size 2 in America) so if you can squeeze into it, you can keep it! And I'm looking forward to Lucas starting his own club, and no I will not be moving to Australia, due to me not actually being married to him (I'm his 18 year old phyco stalker!) And I play any position you want me to!
I read that in the paper the paper, and as he said there is no obvious solution, but we could cap the amount spent on players and wages, and make it equal for all clubs, which shall theoretically eliminate the "big 4" and give every club a fair shot at titles.
I personally would like to see a similar plan to what they do in American Football where a wage cap on wages is put on the clubs and not the players themselves. They'd still find a way round it tho. The implosion isn't far off, mark my words.
Surely if they capped the wages & bonuses then that would go some way to curbing the implosion, also if the team they signed for also had the exclusive image rights of their players it would stop individual sponsorship deals & make the club richer, & not the individual. . .
I actually look forward to an implosion. I think it will be for the good of the game eventually. £100,000+ a week to play football? Come on!! Reality check.
valid points, but you cant stop a person wearing certain brands of clothing, or buying a certain car or mobile ect.
You could with club "Fines" it`s not as if we`re asking thm to be slaves or anything, but the only was I can see the game ever resuming "Normal Service" is to take these drastic measures, it`s spiralling out of control & it needs stopping, NOW!!! COYGiveUsOurGameBackIrons
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