Lyon have been left cursing former owner John Textor once again after Liverpool reached an agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for Bradley Barcola.
L’Equipe report that Barcola’s former club are not set to benefit as well as they could have, thanks to a lack of foresight from the American businessman.
While Paris and Liverpool have reached an agreement for Barcola, worth a potential €140m, Lyon are only set to earn around 3.5% of that.
The French side will earn around €4.9m thanks to FIFA’s Solidarity Mechanism for international transfers. That will amount to the aforementioned €49m fee if Barcola activates all of the potential bonuses at Liverpool.
No sell-on clause
Crucially, they will not receive any additional funds beyond that figure. The Ligue 1 side did not include a sell-on clause when they sold Bradley Barcola to PSG three years ago.
Former owner John Textor was the one who led the negotiations at the time. He elected to sell Barcola for a total of €50m including bonuses. But he did not include a sell-on clause or a percentage of the profit.
So, while PSG could end up earning €90m in profit if all bonuses are met, Lyon will not be taking a cut beyond the solidarity payment from FIFA.
Newcastle United bonus
That’s especially frustrating given the money they’ve already earned from Bruno Guimarães’ move to Arsenal this summer.
That deal, worth around €87.5m, saw them pocket 20% of the profit Newcastle United made in the transfer. As a result, Lyon ended up earning an extra €7.5m on top of the €50.1m they originally earned in 2022.
The money would have been welcome given their failure to qualify for the Champions League.
That failure has left a deficit in the budget. That will require them to sell two key players before the end of the window. That would have potentially been avoided, if Textor had thought ahead.
