Crystal Palace in dark over European place and stuck in Textor’s tangled web | Crystal Palace

A Skateboarding champion in his youth, John Textor has never been opposed to the risks. The American businessman even justifies a mention in the book by Craig Snyder a Secret History of the Ollie as “one of the few to have beaten the world champion Rodney Mullen in free style competitions during the turning point in the 70s”, but a serious head of the head ended his competitive career.

Textor surprisingly turned his attention to the property of the football club in 2021 when he bought a participation in Crystal Palace after having made a fortune in digital technology and next week could prove to be decisive for his last company.

The owner of New York Jets, Woody Johnson, is about to finish his share of sharing of 43% textor in the winners of the FA Cup if – as planned in the coming days – he succeeds in the test of the owners and directors of the Premier League. However, Palace’s participation in the Europa League seems to be based on the result of the Lyon call against their relegation of Ligue 1.

This must be heard this week by the National Directorate for the Control of French Football Management (DNCG), with Lyon – which also belongs to the company Textor Eagle Football Holdings – having accepted during a meeting with UEFA that if they failed, they would abandon their Europa League place and erase the way to Palace.

In an attempt to increase the hope of winning the call, given his difficult relationship with the DNCG since Textor bought Jean-Michel Aulas in June 2022, he announced last Monday that he had resigned from his management positions in Lyon.

Michael Gerlinger was appointed director general and Michele Kang – who also owns the Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses and bought the extremely successful women’s team from Lyon to Eagle Football Holdings last year – as president and president. Friday, Lyon was sentenced to a fine of 12.5 million euros (10.8 million pounds sterling) by UEFA for a violation of financial sustainability requirements. Reports in France say that Lyon must inject 70 million euros to be authorized to play Ligue 1 next season.

If the call fails, the textor is understood that Lyon will be defined, even if it means being in court. But with the American Fund Ares Management, which provided a loan of 425 million euros to complete the purchase of Lyon, breathe the neck, the time is petrol. Eagle Football was registered for a first public offer in the United States last month, with Textor who wanted to start selling stocks in September.

He would have spent the weekend in the Bahamas after having declared that he “impatiently awaited the reduction of my daily management responsibilities in Europe, so that I can focus on the markets where we have all the freedom to manage our football clubs … to invest, innovate, grow and compete. [are] In large hands with Michele, and I will focus on Botafogo, Daring Brussels and our next club in England. »»

Sheffield on Wednesday, which was forbidden to spend money on transfers until January 2027 after the repeated failure to pay the wages of the players, was mentioned as a potential target once the sale of his palace in Johnson is ratified, although Dejphon Chansiri would like more than 150 million pounds Sterling for the Championship club. Textor had interviews with the owner of Watford, Gino Pozzo, about the investment in Vicanage Road in the past.

The narrow relationship of Textor with Evangelos Marinakis – The owner of the Nottingham forest whose team would be promoted to the Europa League if the UEFA rule against Palace – has led several players to move from Botafogo and Lyon to the city of the city in the past 12 months. The signing of Igor Jesus was announced on Saturday and Jair Cunha could be to be later after the elimination of the Brazilian Champions of the Club World Cup which cost the coach, Renato Paiva, his work of Textor was not satisfied with the selection and team training.

“I am shocked,” said Paiva about his dismissal, “and staff and players are open to the decision.” He was appointed in February after Artur Jorge led Botafogo to the victory of the Copa Libertadores in 2024. The Textor would direct the search for the successor of the coach.

Textor’s frustration concerning his lack of influence on Palace led to a break in relations with the president, Steve Parish. Despite the biggest game, Textor could not persuade the parish and its American co -owners co -owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer that Palace should be fully integrated into the Multi -Club of Eagle Football, and repeated efforts to take total control – as its attempted purchase of Everton – failed.

He took the merit of last year’s appointment of Oliver Glasner, having told him about vacancy in Lyon a few months earlier. But it is understood that Palace has produced evidence of correspondence between the Austrian manager, the parish and the then sports director, Dougie Freedman, to support their argument to the UEFA that Textor did not play any role in their decision -making process. If a shareholder has a decisive influence on more than one club, these clubs are not allowed to play in the same UEFA tournament.

The palace should call on the Sports Arbitration Court (CAS) if the decision went against them, with Forest – the first visitors of the Premier League season in Selhurst Park on August 23 – likely to do the same if Palace is authorized to play in the Europa League. It will be intriguing to see who is the lateral texture if they are summoned to testify in cases in Lausanne.

He officially resigned as director of the board of directors of the palace on June 18 and the parish hopes that Johnson, who described a report which appointed him as the worst owner of the NFL this year as “false”, can provide a certain stability and finances when they are impatiently awaiting their fate in Europe.