July 6 2002

Simon Jordan

Simon Jordan has accused the Football League of being "incompetents" and "morons" after striking the new TV deal which gives Palace far less money then before.

The £95m agreement over four years with Sky sees Division Two and Three clubs getting similar amounts to what they were getting with the ITV Digital deal, while Division One clubs' income has been dramatically cut.

First Division clubs will now get £364,000 a year, with an extra £60,000 for each live TV game they appear in.

This cut in revenue has angered Jordan, who believes the Football League chiefs should be sacked immediately.

He said: "I am totally stunned and disgusted at the way this has been handled by the League.

"I am shocked by the small amount of money we have got and staggered that the news was put in the public domain before the clubs were told.

"I only found out about it when I turned on the television and immediately had another First Division chairman ringing me up in disbelief as well.

"This is just typical of the incompetents who run the Football League and I hold David Burns and the whole executive responsible."

He added: "I can only assume that the morons who run the League think they can use this as proof of losses incurred when they take ITV Digital to court.

"The sooner Burns and the rest of them are removed from office, the better. They should simply be sacked."

The ITV Digital deal gave First Division clubs £1.6m a year and the new contract is pretty much the same amount given by Sky to the Nationwide League last time round before ITV Digital.