FORMER Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan says his legal victory over Iain Dowie following the manager’s controversial switch from the Eagles to Charlton in 2006 demonstrated people involved in football were not above the law.

Jordan took an uncompromising stance on Dowie’s decision to cross the south London divide after being convinced by his then employee he was quitting Selhurst Park because he wished to be closer to his family in the north of England.

Dowie was unveiled as Alan Curbishley’s successor at The Valley the following week, an event memorable because Jordan employed a private detective to hijack the occasion and serve Dowie with a writ for fraudulent misrepresentation in front of the world’s media.

The dispute was finally played out in the High Court in 2007 and the verdict went in Jordan’s favour after the court agreed Dowie had been in contact with Charlton before his departure from Palace.

Jordan explains in his autobiography ‘Be careful what you wish for’: “On June 11 we were handed down the verdict three days before it was made public. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“We had won, and not just won, but in tennis parlance we had won 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

“We had just received a landmark verdict, and once again showed the football world that there were consequences outside of its seemingly protected and unaccountable existence.”

Dowie, who was dismissed by the Addicks after just 15 games in charge at The Valley, initially appealed against the humiliating legal defeat before changing his mind and reaching a financial settlement with Jordan.

Despite no longer being an employee of Charlton by the time the case came to court, the SE7 side were also represented legally at the case with Jordan’s then counterpart Richard Murray called as a key witness.

Jordan’s autobiography recalls a particular exchange between Murray and Dowie’s counsel Michael McParland.

“When asked by McParland if he had anything else to add, which was strange in itself given that he was a witness and not there to make statements, he raged: ‘When we win this case I will be bringing an action against Simon Jordan for £50m, which is what we have lost as a result of the distraction of this court case and our relegation.’

“I have to confess I burst out laughing at this bizarre statement.

“The fact that he used ‘we win this court case’, when the action was against Dowie not Charlton, was not lost on the courtroom.

“Perhaps it explained why the Charlton chairman was there for the entire case, as well as bringing legal representation along with him.”

The court case marked the climax of a bitter public feud between the two chairman, which began on the final day of the 2004-05 season when Charlton relegated their former landlords from the Premier League following a 2-2 draw at The Valley.

Jordan claims he and his opposite number had been on friendly terms before this day and even criticises Eagles chief executive Phil Alexander in the book for complaining about the Valley PA announcer after introducing the visitors as ‘PalARSE’ at a League Cup game in October 2004.

The PA man was sacked as a result with Jordan, who was late for the kick-off and not even in the stand when the announcement was made, getting the blame instead of Alexander.

Before the two sides met in a televised game in December 2004 at Selhurst Park, Jordan had given an interview with the Sunday Times in which he was quoted as branding other football chairmen as “tossers”.

Jordan claims what he actually said was that “a lot of football chairmen are tossers but I suspect they may well think the same about me”, with the newspaper editing out the second part of the statement.

The Palace chairman says he went to the boardroom and spoke to Murray to make clear the tosser remark was in no way made in reference to him and was met with a smile and told not to worry as anyone can get misquoted.

But by the time the two sides met for the final day decider five months later, Jordan claims Murray turned the tables by referring to him as a tosser who should enjoy life in the Championship.

According to his book, the confrontation came about because Jordan had missed the pre-match boardroom lunch on account of being stuck in traffic in Greenwich on his way to The Valley for the game.

Jordan writes: “His reason for being so insulting was I hadn’t attended lunch, which I never did and always had my secretary politely decline.

“He went on to mention the Sunday Times article, which I thought we had laid to rest on the day it came out, and then incredibly he asked me if I wanted to have a fight.

“‘Fight?’ I said incredulously, ‘I am the chairman of a football club, as are you. Besides, you are an old man.’

“I left Murray smirking happy in his nonsense, reminding him: ‘What goes around comes around’.”

* ‘Be careful what you wish for’ by Simon Jordan is published by Yellow Jersey Press and is priced £18.99.

He will be signing copies at Waterstone’s Leadenhall Market (1-3 Whittington Avenue, EC3V 1PJ) tomorrow (June 8) between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.

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