Jordan denies 'hating' Dowie

Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan today denied telling a magazine that he “hated” manager Iain Dowie, despite the club’s promotion to the Barclays Premiership in 2004 under his command.

“What I said was I couldn’t stand Iain Dowie, but it was tongue in cheek and taken completely out of context,” Jordan told a High Court judge on the second day of Palace’s £1m compensation claim against Dowie over his departure from Selhurst Park last summer.

The magazine – FHM – was “sensationalist” and failed to reflect the manner in which he made his comments, Jordan said.

But he agreed with Dowie’s barrister that he had told the manager he did not like working with him and did not think his attitude was correct.

“I didn’t think winning promotion mitigated all the things that were wrong, like lack of respect,” he told Mr Justice Tugendhat.

Crystal Palace, who spent only one year in the top flight before being relegated, is suing Dowie for “fraudulent misrepresentation”.

Dowie, 42, had a clause in his contract stipulating that, if he left to join another club, Palace would receive £1m compensation.

Jordan claims he agreed to waive that clause because Dowie had stated he wanted to move nearer to his wife and family in Bolton.

But within days of leaving, Dowie was appointed manager of arch rivals Charlton - just a few miles from Selhurst Park.

Jordan insists that he would never have reached the compromise with Dowie had he known he was planning to move to The Valley.

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