Simon Jordan reacts to Leeds United’s legal news following the Everton development.
Simon Jordan has slammed Leeds United, Burnley and Leicester City and their hopes of taking legal action against Everton if they are found guilty of breaking financial fair play rules.
Reports emerged that the Whites were one of a number of clubs looking to take legal action against the Toffees should they be found guilty of breaking the Premier League’s FFP rules, with a claim totalling a reported £300 million between the three sides [Daily Mail, 3 October].
Each club were hoping to earn £100million, the amount that they believe that they missed out on having been relegated while Everton remained in the top flight, but Jordan believes that Leeds and the other clubs have “no chance” of winning their case.
Speaking on talkSport (30 October, 11:26) he said: “No chance, no chance, no chance. They’ve got no chance. Everybody signs up to a covenant which is basically that the sanction of a breach has this consequence.
“Now they can make a case if they want and try and make a case through the legal system to try and suggest that this is a breach of the rules to which they signed up and the consequence of those rules. But any decent court case is going to refer them back to the industry that they came from and say what were the rules that you signed up to.
“The rules that you signed up to were that the punishment for financial breachers was this. You can’t then go and say ‘Well I don’t like the rules that I signed up to and I can’t do anything about changing those rules, so I’m now going to sue you for them.’
“Any decent court will refer you back to your industry because that’s the governance that you decided you were going to be a party to.”
No chance
Jordan seems incredibly definite in his suggestion that Leeds United have absolutely no hope of getting any sort of settlement for their reported court case, given the rules of the Premier League were agreed to by every club that played a part in the division.
While it does seem unjust the Whites could have in theory been relegated because of the Toffees breaking the rules, it is hard to argue with the presenter’s sentiment that the Whites had agreed to these rules when they were in the division so now must stand by them.
One presenter’s suggestion that a case would quickly be thrown out of court is unlikely to see the Whites down tools however and not push for some sort of legal battle, should Everton be found guilty, but it is unlikely that Leeds will be earning an extra £100million anytime soon.
Regardless of Jordan’s comments, this story won’t be going anywhere until the independent commission reaches some sort of decision on the Toffees spending and until then there is a small chance that Leeds could be about to become a whole lot richer.
