November 28 2016

Tony Pulis

Former Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis has been ordered to pay the Eagles £3.77 million in compensation.

He was found to have deceived a Premier League managers' arbitration tribunal with regards to his departure from SE25 in August 2014.

Palace Chairman Steve Parish agreed to pay Pulis a £2 million bonus for keeping the club in the Premier League the season before, and Pulis asked for this payment to be made two weeks before it was due.

After Pulis' sudden departure, two days after receiving the bonus, Parish demanded he return the bonus.

In March, the Premier League's mediation panel found in favour of Palace and Parish, with Pulis ordered to return the bonus and pay a further £1m in legal costs and damages for breach of contract.

That decision was appealed by Pulis but a ruling from the Commercial Court last week dismissed his appeal and ordered him to pay liquidated damages for £1.5m as well as £2.276m damages "for deceit".

Pulis had told Palace that he urgently needed the money early so that "he could buy some land for his children" but Sir Michael found there was a "lack of evidence" to support this claim.

Pulis had also alleged that a "heated players meeting" (HPM) took place on 8 August but the mediation panel ruled it had, in fact, taken place on 12 August – the day he received the bonus payment.

That was despite oral evidence to the contrary from ex Palace players Lewis Price and Stuart O'Keefe, although that was dismissed by the judge due to evidence provided by Parish that he had not been at the training ground, and in fact had been at the hairdressers.

See the full judgement transcript.