American businessman John Textor has insisted he has at least four billionaires ready to buy his shares in Crystal Palace to provide the funds to avert disaster at Lyon.
RMC Sport cover comments from Textor today in which he insists Lyon will not be relegated and his attempts to sell his shares in Crystal Palace are on course.
Lyon were hit with a provisional relegation to Ligue 2 yesterday, with the DNCG, France’s watchdog for football finances, ready to punish the French club severely over the state of their finances.
They current find themselves with their ‘back to the wall’ after debt rose to €508m this year, an increase of €50m from the previous year.
That led the DNCG to put them on a provisional relegation and a transfer ban, instructing the club’s ownership, the Eagle Football Group, to sort out the situation quickly.
The pressure is now on Textor to raise the funds, with Lyon’s squad now up for sale in January as a result. A big source of income will be selling shares in Crystal Palace, with Textor having been pushing to get out of Selhurst Park for months.
He owns 45% of the club and failed in a complete takeover attempt, prompting him to try and sell and potentially buy 100% of a different club in England.
He now needs the money to help balance the books for Lyon and RMC Sport cover comments from him today insisting that he has options on the table.
“I tell the world: we will not be relegated,” he said.
“We are very optimistic about our model. Our shareholders have funds. No one will allow the club to be relegated. (…) There is no chance of us failing, at all levels. (We need) around €100m.”
He then added that there are ‘four potential buyers’ for Crystal Palace who are “billionaires from all over the world and leaders of large technology companies”. This is something he has brought up to the DNCG, who currently aren’t interested according to the American.
“The DNCG auditor did not want to take into account the sale of Crystal Palace and the IPO,” he concluded.
