October 7 2005

Simon Jordan

Simon Jordan has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association.

The FA were upset at comments made by Jordan in his fortnightly Observer newspaper column on September 18.

He slammed referee Brian Curson over Palace's 3-2 defeat at Reading and said refereeing standards have got worse.

In the article, Jordan said: "When the FA read this column, this attempt to be constructive, they'll probably charge me with bringing the game into disrepute."

Since being charged, he added: "If they want me to explain my comments I'm not going to. They're there to read in the paper.

"The article was balanced, constructive and gave my honest view of the performance of a public figure in a public sport. It's free speech. They need to spend their time tackling the problems the column identified instead of bothering me."