Simon Jordan

Simon Jordan (born 24 September 1967) is an English businessman who made his fortune in the mobile phone industry. In 2000 he purchased Crystal Palace Football Club and remained chairman of the club until they entered administration in early 2010 . In 2002 he co founded and funded the car Magazine Octane launching it to become one of the UK's most successful car magazines selling his 50% shareholding in 2006. In 2006 he opened the restaurant Club Bar and Dining in London's Warwick Street, the restaurant/ bar was voted London's best bar in 2007 and Jordan sold it to the Ottenlenghi Group in 2010 who renamed the restaurant Nopi.

Early life

At 16, Jordan joined Palace and then Chelsea on schoolboy forms, but his career never took off, and Chelsea released him when he was sixteen. He has described himself as being "good enough to be a professional, but mentally I wasn't interested. You often get players who have bags of talent, but not the required application. I was one of them.".^[1] All this happened whilst he was at Purley High School for Boys in Old Coulsdon. His father Peter Jordan used to play for Crystal Palace F.C., although never appeared for the first team.

In the late 1980s or early 1990s he was invited by a friend, James Wright, to join him in his business, Wright Connections, selling mobile phones via adverts placed in Loot and Exchange and Mart. Jordan and Wright rented an office from Delta 5, another mobile phone dealer, and the business lasted for a short time before changing its name to Corporate Cellular Ltd (CCL). This business was not considered to be a great success either and Jordan left in the early 1990s, presumably to work for the Carphone Warehouse.

In 1994, Jordan and Andrew Briggs set up their own mobile phone retail company called the Pocket Phone Shop. They started with £30,000 and a 3,500 sq ft (330 m²) unit in Slough, and after forming an agreement with service provider Astec, the business flourished.

By 2000, in just four years with unprecedented growth the Pocket Phone Shop had 208 outlets nationwide, employed 1100 staff and was forecasting a turnover of £102m for the 1999/00 financial year. Pocket Phone Shop was seen as one of the main rivals in its sector to leader The Carphone Warehouse – the organisation that Jordan and Briggs both worked for before launching their own venture.

At its peak the Pocket Phone Shop enlisted the services of Ulrika Jonsson to promote its new store openings, but the relationship turned sour when Jordan sued Jonsson claiming she had not fulfilled her promotional activities. It is unknown what the outcome of this action was. Despite the Pocket Phone Shop venture being successful, Jordan's first forays into the mobile phone business were not. Jordan decided to sell in early 2000 and achieved the mobile phone retail industries biggest private industry sale.

Crystal Palace

Jordan and Briggs left Pocket Phone Shop in 2000 after selling the company to One2One for £73m. That year, Singapore financier Jerry Lim bought Crystal Palace Football Club, a club that had been hours from extinction, from the administrators, and immediately sold the club to Jordan. Then aged 32, Jordan immediately appointed himself chairman, making him the youngest chairman of a Football League club. Having been born "100 yards from the ground"^[2] Jordan had been a lifelong fan, and he noted "I have achieved exactly what I set out to do, and that is to be Chairman of Crystal Palace. I have been prepared to put my money into something I truly believe in, and my first job is to turn the fortunes of this club around." Jordan also vowed that the club would be promoted to the Premiership, within five years. He actually succeeded in 4 yrs. However, despite owning the club, Jordan did not own the ground. That belonged to Ron Noades, who had been chairman until 1998. It was the sale of the club from Noades to Mark Goldberg that eventually led to the club going into administration, and therefore it was natural that Jordan appeared not to have much time for Noades.

During his time as Palace chairman, Jordan also helped to set up a USA Academy, which is known as Crystal Palace Baltimore, and has supported former Palace captain Geoff Thomas in his work to raise money for first Leukaemia Research and then his own charity, "The Geoff Thomas Foundation". Jordan appeared for a "Geoff Thomas Foundation Charity XI" in the first ever match at the new Wembley Stadium, against a team of celebrities, scoring the second goal in a 2–0 win after Mark Bright had opened the scoring.

Jordan caused a storm in July 2008 by announcing his plans to sell the club and move away from football altogether, stating he had "been disillusioned with football for a long time".^[3] This occurred after Palace had found centre-stage once again following a Football Association tribunal's decision on the John Bostock transfer to Tottenham Hotspur left Jordan to declare "It's a panel of halfwits". Palace were awarded only £700k, having valued Bostock at £5m.

No potential buyers came forward to make a bid for Palace, and the club have become embroiled in deep financial trouble. Rumours persist of personal financial difficulties as Jordan faced "cashflow" problems relating to wage payments at the club in November and December 2009.^[4] On 26 January 2010 Crystal Palace went into administration and Jordan's ownership came to an end.

Managers

Jordan gained a reputation as a manager-killer early in his Palace reign, though this changed as his reign progressed. Between 2000 and 2003 no fewer than the following five managers departed the manager's post: Steve Coppell (August 2000), Alan Smith (April 2001), Steve Bruce (November 2001), Trevor Francis (April 2003), and Steve Kember (November 2003). Of these, only Coppell and Bruce left of their own accord, with Coppell's departure brought about by a personality clash^[5] and Bruce's resignation leading to a high court case.^[6]

Iain Dowie was appointed in December 2003 and the club bounded up the table from the relegation zone to win promotion in May 2004, beating West Ham United at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in the play-off final, fulfilling Jordan's promise of promotion within five years. However, the club remained in the Premier League for just one season before being narrowly relegated in 2005. In May 2006, having accepted Dowie and Jordan had differences but the same goal, Dowie left the club by mutual consent.^[7] However, towards the end of the month Dowie joined Charlton Athletic as their new manager, prompting Jordan to issue a legal writ against him,^[8] claiming Dowie had lied about his reasons for departure.

Peter Taylor, an ex-Palace player was installed on 13 June 2006. However, his reign would last just 16 months, ending on 8 October 2007 with the sack. Jordan stated he wanted Taylor to be remembered as a good player for Palace rather than a bad manager. On 11 October at a press conference he unveiled Neil Warnock as the new manager, which failed to surprise many as the two were reported to be good friends. Jordan's choice appeared to have been a good one, since the club embarked on a superb run of form that saw them move from the relegation places into the 2007–08 season play-offs, but the relationship between the pair ended in a dispute after Warnock left the club to join Queens Park Rangers following the Eagles' entering administration.^[9]

Dowie Court Case

Jordan succeeded in his High Court battle against Dowie, with The Hon. Mr Justice Tugendhat ruling that Dowie had lied when negotiating his way out of his contract at Palace. Dowie won the right to appeal against that decision, leading to it being heard in the Court of Appeal. In April 2008, Crystal Palace F.C settled out of court with Iain Dowie, and issued the following statement.

"Prior to appeal being heard a mutually satisfactory settlement of all matters has now been reached on terms acceptable to Crystal Palace Football Club"^[10]

Selhurst Park

In October 2006, Jordan gave supporters an announcement that had been eagerly awaited since he took over, that on 6 October, he had purchased the freehold to Selhurst Park from Ron Noades for £12m, using an investment mechanism that kept his identity secret. He claimed the obfuscation had been necessary due to the "very, very difficult" relationship he has with Noades.^[11] Palace are now seen to be safe for the future.^[12] It later transpired that the freehold had been bought by the company Selhurst Park Limited, which was owned by another company. A maze of ownership finally showed the legal ownership being 60% Paul Kemsley and 40% a venture capital company owned by HBOS. Simon Jordan has since offered the freehold for sale with the intention of taking back a long lease on the property. Simon Jordan's exact position on the freehold was unknown, although Jordan later agreed a 25-year lease for Selhurst Park.^[13] Selhurst Park Limited later went into administration (separate from Crystal Palace Football Club's own administration), leading to the stadium being purchased by the CPFC 2010 consortium, led by Steve Parish at the same time as the consortium buying Crystal Palace F.C.

Career as a columnist

As of the 2005–06 season, Jordan wrote a fortnightly column for The Observer newspaper. A particular column, written by Jordan,^[14] led to him being charged by the Football Association with bringing the game into disrepute.^[15] The case was heard on 7 December 2005 with a charge of improper conduct proven.^[16] Jordan was given a suspended fine of £10,000. But, backed by other journalists and by media advisor Max Clifford,^[17] Jordan indicated his intention to appeal, stating "I didn't start this fight, but it's not something I'm going to walk away from."^[18] His appeal was heard on 10 April, and was rejected by the three member panel, two votes to one. Jordan commented in his 16 March column in The Observer that he and his advisors were "now considering taking this through the courts. Any legal action I take won't be about wasting time or resources on a petty point of principle – it'd be an attempt to see the whole thing unravel."

Jordan also used the column to highlight the inconsistencies in the F.A. disciplinary panel. The same panel decided no disciplinary action would be taken against Paul Jewell, manager of Wigan, who had been charged on the basis of making comments similar to Jordan's. Jordan described the compliance process as being "based on mood", noting: "There's no frame of reference, no consistency – and, yes, it's personal. It amounts to me not being able to say a referee is incompetent while others can, using the same language."Jordan, Simon (16 April 2006). "Shameless angst of papers who promote gambling". London: The Observer. 

Whilst awaiting the outcome of the appeal, it appeared as though the events were having an effect upon him, as on 26 February 2006 it was reported by The News of the World newspaper that Jordan was tired of being chairman, and wanted to go back to being a regular fan. He has since reported in his 5 March 2006 Observer column that he was misquoted and that he had simply restated what he had said eight months before, that "I don't plan to stay at Palace or in football all my life. I'd like to return to the stands 'as quickly as possible', but I won't sell until I've secured a sound legacy – Premiership football and a new ground"^[19]

Jordan did not continue writing for the Observer in the 2006–07 season.

Television work

Aside from appearances in football-related programmes, Jordan's first major TV appearance was in early 2007, appearing in Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway for ITV along with fellow millionaires the Ann Summers managing director Jacqueline Gold (daughter of West Ham chairman David Gold, a personal enemy of Jordan's); entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne; MOBO Awards founder Kanya King; and former Conservative Member of Parliament-turned-novelist Jeffrey Archer.

Film production

In 2008, Simon Jordan produced the film Telstar based on the play about the life of record producer, Joe Meek. The film followed Jordan's production of the play of the same title at London's new ambassadors theatre. The film was solely funded by Jordan and featured ; Kevin Spacey, James Corden and JJ Feild it was a critical success and opened in 45 screens in the UK

In 2006, Jordan part funded and Exec produced Sweeney Todd starring Ray Winstone and Tom Hardy

Author

In 2012 Simon Jordan published an account of his life, an autobiography "Be Careful What You Wish For". The book recounts his business success in the cellular phone business, but mostly focuses on his time as the youngest ever owner of a professional football club as chairman of Crystal Palace Football Club.

The book was a critical success and commercial, it was published by Random House achieved an award at The British Sport books awards and was a finalist in the William Hill sports awards,

Personal life

It was reported by the Daily Mirror's website in January 2006 that Jordan had bought girlfriend Meg Mathews (the former wife of Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher) a Porsche worth £100,000 for Christmas, along with a personalised number plate, and that the couple had been together since July 2005. However Jordan gave details of the ending of this relationship in March 2006, admitting that it had been Mathews who had ended the relationship, while attacking the News of the World, which had reported that Jordan had "ditched Mathews" the week before. Jordan wrote of the matter in his Observer column, "the piece belittled someone who has been very important to me over the last nine months."^[20]

In June 2006, it was reported that a woman Stalking Jordan,Tara Stout, 36, posed in a Union Jack bikini and high heels, then put on tiny shorts and a revealing top to face Bow Street Magistrates Court in Central London over a case regarding Jordan.^[21] The pair also faced each other in court in October of that year, when Stout was found guilty of harassing Jordan.^[22] It was reported in the Sunday Mirror's showbiz section "Radar" in September 2006 that model Sophie Anderton was dating Jordan^[23]

In June 2007, it was announced that Suzi Walker, the estranged Page Three wife of Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper Ian Walker, was pregnant with Jordan's child. The pregnancy was unplanned, but the couple having dated for eight months were delighted.^[24] The baby, a girl called Cameron, was born in January 2008.

Jordan currently resides in Marbella and London.

References

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