Trying to create his own little City Group, John Textor has diversified his football club portfolio quite nicely over the past year or so.
Already owning RWD Molenbeek in Belgium, he is also the proprietor of 90% of Botafogo in Brazil, as well as 66.5% of Lyon and 40% of Crystal Palace.
He has already made it clear he would like to improve that stake in the Eagles going forward, but that has yet to happen, still making him a minority shareholder to date.
That means he still can’t make big decisions at Crystal Palace, which is putting a small dent in a plan of his to make all of his clubs have the same shirt provider.
This comes amid a situation where Botafogo still don’t have a supplier for next season, as reported by UOL in Brazil, and with just two months left until the end of the current campaign ‘and the desire to start next season with new uniforms’, they are leaving it late.
The outlet state that, as things stand, Reebok ‘lead the race’ to make the Botafogo kits, but ‘a new possibility’ is giving Textor a headache, which is that he is ‘considering equipping the clubs’ in his Eagle Football Holdings LLC company with the same brand: Adidas.
While that won’t be an issue at the French club, who already have a 12-year agreement with the company, and shouldn’t be a problem for their Brazilian or Belgian counterparts, there is an issue at Crystal Palace.
That’s because while Textor does hold shares at Selhurst Park, ‘he is not a majority shareholder at the Eagles, which makes big decisions complicated because they depend on more people’s approval’.
It does help that Textor ‘has good relations with the executives of Adidas’, but he is also a ‘personal friend of Jamie Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands Group, which controls Reebok’.
With the owner ‘keen for Eagles Football Holding clubs to have the same uniform supplier’, it remains to be seen what can be done, as switching to Reebok could be complicated over at Lyon.
Either way, that’s his idea, and it remains to be seen if it is one he can convince others at Crystal Palace to implement.
