Dowie 'lied over new job plans'

Former Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie was accused in court today of telling lies when he negotiated his way out of his contract with the club and joined south London rivals Charlton a year ago.

Palace chairman Simon Jordan is to give evidence in the club’s £1m lawsuit against Dowie that the manager made “fraudulent misrepresentations”.

Dowie, 42, had a clause in his contract to the effect that if he left to join another club, his new bosses would pay Palace £1m compensation.

Jordan says that, as a gesture of goodwill, he agreed to waive that clause because Dowie had stated he wanted to move nearer to his wife and family in Bolton.

Within days of leaving, Dowie was appointed manager of Charlton – just a few miles from Selhurst Park, south-east London.

Jordan, who admits he is “not Charlton’s number one fan”, insists that he would never have reached the compromise with Dowie had he known he was planning to move to The Valley.

In the event, Dowie left Charlton in November after only 12 Premiership matches and is now in charge at Coventry.

But Palace are pressing ahead with its legal action by asking Mr Justice Tugendhat to rule on potentially decisive issues in a hotly-contested hearing set to last eight days.

Palace alleges that Dowie made “representations of fact which were knowingly false” when he told Jordan his reason for wishing to leave was to move north and that he had had no contact with Charlton and had no present intention to move to The Valley.