Just a week ago they were in each other’s arms at Olympique Lyon: they had won the most important game of the year for the club, and with club saint Alexandre Lacazette’s 1-0 winning goal in the Rhône derby against Saint-Étienne, the Groupama team broke. There are great emotions in the stadium.
A few days later, the Lyonnais are now frozen: As the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG), the financial control body in French football, announced on Friday evening, the seven-time champions and two-time Champions League semi-finalists – as of now – do not receive a license for Ligue 1 and would have to be relegated to the second division. The reason is a mountain of debt of more than 500 million euros that the main shareholder, the American Eagle Football Group, has accumulated in recent years.
If the financial situation does not improve by June, the traditional club will be moved to Ligue 2 as a penalty, the DNCG announced. According to the financial regulator’s ruling, Olympique is not allowed to sign new players during the winter transfer window and must introduce a salary cap. Accordingly, annual wage costs would have to be reduced from 128 to 74 million euros. There was no exact information about the amount the club would have to save overall and what impact these requirements would have on the successful women’s football division.
In recent years, other former first division teams have already noticed that the inspectors are serious about their announcements: FC Le Mans, CS Sedan, FC Sochaux and, just six months ago, the six-time French champions Girondins Bordeaux were also forced to relegate for financial reasons . Bordeaux even had to be relegated from the second division to the fourth division.
According to Eagle Football boss John Textor, OL shouldn’t get that far: “I’m telling the world: We’re not going to be relegated, that’s not going to happen,” said the businessman from Missouri at a press conference on Saturday. In the course of this, he tried to explain to media representatives the financial structure of his holding company, which also includes the clubs Crystal Palace (England), Botafogo (Brazil) and Molenbeek (Belgium). He sees the DNCG’s announcement simply as a “warning that we will be relegated if we don’t do certain things and don’t work sustainably.” But that applies to all professional clubs. Apart from a few skeptics, Eagle Football Holding’s business model is receiving a lot of positive feedback worldwide, Textor continued. That’s why he thinks it’s “awkward” that the DNCG is now telling him how he should run his business. Above all, the fact that the warning was issued publicly angers the former skateboarder, who once ran a company for special effects in Hollywood blockbusters and has been investing in football since 2021.
Textor could monetize its Crystal Palace shares – and one or two players
Looking ahead to the upcoming transfer window, Textor said: “Some people will try to take advantage of this news,” alluding to the fact that clubs, aware of the Lyonnais’ plight, might drive down prices. The first sales candidate is likely to be the French U21 international Rayan Cherki. The 21-year-old homegrown player is said to have aroused interest from PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Fulham in the summer, when OL was already under financial pressure. He is currently linked to Liverpool FC. In addition to Textor’s Crystal Palace shares, which are expected to bring in around 40 million euros, the Georgian European Championship top scorer Georges Mikautadze, 24, or the Belgian young national player Malick Fofana, 19, may also have to be made into money.
“We have 29 players in the first team. Ideally there should be 23 or 24 players. There are six players too many,” says investor Textor, who, however, wanted to part with noble reserves like the former long-time goalkeeper Anthony Lopes. The season’s goal of finally qualifying for the Champions League again after five years could quickly be lost sight of despite fifth place in the table after a bloodletting in the winter.
