Simon Jordan has criticised Premier League chief executive Richard Masters after Masters pointed to Newcastle United as a success story under the competition's spending rules. The former Crystal Palace chairman described the regulations as "Draconian" and argued they prevent clubs from closing the gap on the league's elite.
Masters' claim sparks Jordan's response
Masters appeared on talkSPORT this week and used Newcastle and Aston Villa as examples of clubs thriving under the current spending structure. Since the PIF's 2021 takeover, Newcastle have secured three successive top-seven finishes, won a first major title in 70 years, and qualified for two Champions League campaigns in three seasons, having previously endured five consecutive bottom-half finishes.
Jordan, however, sent a defiant message to Masters. He asked on talkSPORT: "The bottom line is, to make the argument anyone can win the Premier League, how do Newcastle get to the level that Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham are at?"
The 'Big Six' divide
Jordan argued that the so-called 'Big Six' has been allowed to form because Chelsea and Manchester City were able to buy their way into competing with established clubs. He said: "The 'Big Six' has been allowed to become the Big Six because Chelsea and Manchester City were allowed to come to the table and buy their way into a space where they could compete with the clubs that had already established their positions over years and years and years and years and years."
He noted that clubs like Newcastle and Villa, despite having rich owners, regularly have to sell top talent or see their managers poached by bigger clubs. This summer, Newcastle's squad was weakened by the departures of Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, and Bruno Guimaraes, which contributed to Eddie Howe leaving the club.
Questioning governance
Jordan questioned why regulation is needed for the most commercially successful league in history. He said: "Why would you suggest that governance needs to be brought in to the most commercially successful league in the history of football? Why are you regulating it? What are you regulating it from?"
He added: "Is your regulation [good] with the consequences that clubs are suing one another now? The way Manchester City have been hauled over the coals and sat in [limbo] because you can't prosecute them properly? Is that good governance and regulation? Because to me, it doesn't look like it."
Call for 'unfettered expenditure'
Jordan denied host Jim White's suggestion that he supports a return to the 'Roman Abramovich days' when Chelsea's spending transformed the league. However, he suggested clubs should be allowed a period of "unfettered expenditure" to try and "catch those that are already there."
When White cited Leicester City's 2016 title win as an example of the system working, Jordan replied: "You're going to give me one example over 34 years? And one example that's not likely to be repeated, because the strong are getting stronger." He concluded: "The league has got more popular, you've got a different set of ownerships, you've allowed nation states to come in and now you don't want people to spend? Now you're going to close the shop? What a stupid, Draconian, one-dimensional way of thinking."
