A person passes in front of the Olympique Lyonnais store, in which you can read “textor outside” in protest of the descent of the club to Ligue 2, in Lyon, central-east of France, on June 25, 2025.
Photo: AFP – Jeff Pachoud
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Sale of shares at the Crystal Palace, assignment of players and liquidity contribution: The owner of the Lyon, the American tycoon John Textor, must present more solid financial guarantees in the appeal process to avoid in extremis the descent of category.
The National Directorate of Control and Management (DNCG), Gendarme of French clubs, decided on Tuesday the Lyon historical descentChampion of Ligue 1 between 2002 and 2008 and Club where players passed as Karim Benzema, Hugo Lloris or Brazilians Juninho Pernambicano and Sonny Anderson.
The club, one of the greats of Gallic football, is owned since the late 2022 textor through Eagle Foootball Holding (EFH), a business structure of which the Brazilian Botafogo.
The entity announced the same Tuesday that it will appeal a decision of the DNCG that described as “incomprehensible”, but to win the process and stay in the elite they must still present some accounts that convince the authorities.
The Lyon recalled that, since January, EFH has contributed 83 million euros to the club coffers that have allowed a postponement of debts.
Salary mass reduction
To regain the salary mass, a hundred workers of the entity accepted a volunteer low plan.
Also, the club is going to reduce some 30 million the salary mass of the professional staffgetting rid of the largest campus contracts, Not renewing Alexandre Lacazette, Argentine Nicolás Tagliafico and Portuguese Anthony Lopes and transferring Rayan Cherki and Maxnce Caqueret (for 42.5 and 15 million euros to Manchester City and how, respectively).
All these measures were considered insufficient by the DNCG and the club now has two weeks, until the process in appeal, to carry out the necessary measures to meet the demands of the authorities.
The core of the problem would be the DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUMS IN THE ACCOUNTSespecially those from the multi -property Eagle Holding.
For example, the DNCG has the free assignment in January of the Argentine Thiago Almada de Botafogo Al Lyondespite the fact that the French club was prohibited from making signings and had to reduce the salary mass.
On Monday, Crystal Palace, another of the clubs under the EFH umbrella, announced that textor sold 43% of the shares of the London club Also American businessman Woody Johnson for an amount, according to media, about 220 million euros (255 million dollars.
The Holding EFH would have allocated only 40 million euros of that sale to Lyon, when the DNCG expected double.
The instance also studies the benefit that Lyon could take with the rights of three football players (Igor Jesus, Thiago Almada y Luiz Henrique) assigned to the Galo club last January.
Angry with textor
Luiz Enrique was already transferred to the Zenit of St. Petersburg for 33 million euros.
The difficult economic situation of Lyon, also in the spotlight of UEFA and FIFA, has fragilized the position of textor, which this Wednesday is the goal of Lyon fans: “Textor outside” or “Textor, war is declared” They are two banners that appeared in the city of Rhone.
This whole process will have consequences at the sports level. Ligue 1 will begin on the weekend of August 15, a week after Ligue 2, and the club does not yet know in which category it will play, or with what players.
In case of confirming the decrease, it could even mean the disappearance of Lyon, since the 250 million budget is an exaggerated amount for Ligue 2.
This option, however, seems distant considering that this would mean enormous losses for US owners, after investing tens of millions in the project.
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