Johnson stays at Palace but agent row escalates

Jordan claimed he had also reported Leon Angel to the Football Association for "contravening Fifa regulations by representing a player and then seeking a mandate from a club to sell him". He said that Angel, who heads the Base Soccer Agency and strenuously denies any wrong-doing, had been banned from Palace's training ground and from Selhurst Park.

Jordan's outburst followed the announcement that Johnson had been persuaded to sign a new five-year contract - with his pay rising from £10,000 to £24,000-a-week. That was in return for withdrawing a transfer request lodged at the end of last season when Palace were relegated from the Premiership.

At the time, Johnson insisted he had to leave to further his England ambitions. Jordan said yesterday that he had met the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, at the weekend at Palace's friendly with West Ham United and received assurances that playing in the The Championship would not harm Johnson's chances.

Jordan claimed: "Andy has never wanted to leave. He wanted to know the opportunity to play for England is still available to him."

Despite Eriksson's reassurances, he has not attended a single Championship match in four years.

Earlier, Jordan spoke at a 9am press conference - which was called before the player had even signed the deal, which has no get-out clauses attached - along with the Palace manager, Iain Dowie, and Johnson. However, the 24-year-old player stayed for just two minutes, confirming he wanted "all the speculation and talk to go away" before leaving.

Jordan said this was simply because Johnson was not comfortable speaking to the press, but it hardly appeared to be a ringing endorsement. Jordan said he had talked to Johnson last week and the pair had met on Monday - with the chairman excluding the player's agent. "This is bullshit that players can't negotiate for themselves," Jordan said. "The agent, as he should be, had a zero value in the equation."

Jordan, who has refused to deal with agents before, continued his attack on Angel by saying: "Andrew has had illustrated to him the net worth of this particular agent. And with due respect to the agent, he came in five months before the season finished. We never saw him, never heard from him and the week after we were relegated, he came in asking for a mandate to sell a player who he has done nothing for ... If you are Andrew, you work it out for yourself what your views on his agent are."

He added: "I have a crusade against bad agents. The agent in this equation had no business doing what he was doing. He advised his client badly, misjudged the calibre of the individuals he was dealing with and thought he could come into my place of business and tell me what to do."

Last night Angel issued his own statement and reiterated that it was Johnson himself who had asked for a transfer. "The executive who looks after Andrew has known him for more than three years. The reason we were not party to negotiations was not through either our choice or Andrew's but the refusal of the chairman to talk to us. However, we met the player last night for four hours to discuss the proposal. Our motive is to properly represent our client and not purely for financial gain. I have checked with the FA and I am not aware the FA have any problem with my conduct. I strongly deny any breach of the Fifa regulations."