Outspoken former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan got his facts wrong when taking a pop at Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans on TalkSport Radio earlier today.
Evans this morning went public with his frustrations around the Elite Player Performance Plan and how it leaves Football League clubs virtually powerless to prevent their best young academy players being poached by the big Premier League clubs.
Town have seen Ben Knight (Man City), Harry Wright (Arsenal), Charlie Brown (Chelsea) all move on in recent years, while Marcelo Flores and Dylan Crowe are currently being chased by Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.
Jordan, speaking on his regular slot alongside Max Rushden for the mid-morning show, claimed Evans’ frustrations were ‘ironic’ and ‘hypocrisy’ given Ipswich were among the clubs to vote in EPPP.
However, Ipswich were, in fact, one of 22 clubs to vote against the system back in 2011.
Jordan said: “I came back from my well-earned vacation and I saw Marcus Evans, the Ipswich chairman and an owner I know relatively well, ‘carping’ – I can’t think of another word – about the inability to get compensation from so-called bigger clubs for their youth development.
“The problem with it is that Marcus Evans is part of a group of people who voted for a structure that enables the Premier League clubs to be able to do this.
“In the mid-2000s the Premier League offered a solidarity payment to the Football League clubs for nothing and they all took it and put it into their cash flows. Then all of a sudden the Premier League said ‘actually, we are going to take this way unless we start dealing with the compensation issue around young players’. It’s bait and switch.
FLASHBACK: July 2014: Town miss out on Category One academy status by 0.3%
“But the Football League clubs, in the end, accepted it. It got voted on by 72 of the Football League clubs and 48 of them, with respect, outside of the Championship have a completely different agenda to some of the bigger clubs inside the Championship.
“And if they’re offered financial incentives from the front end they’ll not look further down the line.
“So you’ve now got an academy situation where the academies are graded. Marcus Evans, who was one of the chairman that voted for the implementation of a restructuring of the academy rules, that removed the compensation for young players or reduced the compensation for young players to such a level that it now becomes unrewarding or unsustainable to have youth development policies, is now saying ‘this is outrageous’.
FLASHBACK: Town among the 22 clubs to vote against EPPP – Clegg outlined his frustrations
“Football League clubs have thrown the baby out with the bath water. You can’t come back now and unring a bell.
“So it kind of made me smirk, not in facetious way, that Marcus is now involving himself at such a level and saying ‘it’s unjust, it’s unfair’ that compensation rights for young players has been taken away from us when this was their own doing.
“The idea that they are now complaining about it is kind of ironic. I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’, but I am going to kind of say that.
“Ten years ago people ridiculed me about my tantrum over (John) Bostock going to Tottenham and it’s gone even further now.
“The current chairman of the FA (Greg Clarke) was involved in giving away the compensation rights (when chief executive of the Football League). This is what English football is like – it’s hypocrisy sometimes.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here