French football lived a real earthquake last night. Already threatened with demotion to Ligue 2 by the DNCG last January, Olympique Lyonnais saw the financial gendarme of hexagonal football confirm the terrible sanction. An unexpected blow for John Textor who thought he had saved the Gones with the sale of Rayan Cherki to Manchester City (€ 42.5 million) and that of his shares at Crystal Palace, supposed to bring about € 200 million. “”We are rather satisfied. The DNCG is aware of what we proposed. You can see it, including the sale of Crystal Palace. Everything happened as we had planned. We liked what happened this year. We brought a lot of money, we did our job. I have enough money to ensure the future“Said the American yesterday, leaving his hearing.
Sanded, Textor and OL immediately called upon to avoid seeing the Rhone club evolve in the anteroom of the elite for the first time since 1983. While waiting to see if the authorities will be favorable or not in the face of the Lyon appeal, it should be recalled that this new catastrophic does not only tremble OL. All the clubs of the Eagle galaxy are also threatened. As he so often recalled at the time, to calm the game concerning the alarming situation of OL, Textor manages all his clubs according to a common fund system. Clearly, if one of his teams goes poorly financially, Textor injects him with the money collected by health training. A sleight of hand regularly used between Botafogo and OL for example (Gains de la Copa Libertadores donated, just like part of the sale of Luiz Henrique in Zenit). With an OL in Ligue 2, the situation will radically change. Not for Crystal Palace which will soon no longer be part of Eagle. On the other hand, it may be the grimace soup for Botafogo and the Daring Brussels (the new name of Molenbeek).
Fear wins Brazil
Regarding the Brazilian club, Globo We learn that the blow will be rough on several levels if the descent of OL is confirmed on appeal. From a transfer window, Lyon was often an argument of choice offered by the Glorioso to its most flashy recruits. As he had done with Luiz Henrique and Thiago Almada, the Carioca club sold them the project to use the Eagle gateway to send them very quickly on the springboard named OL. This is how the first city preferred to join the Fogão rather than Flamengo when he left Betis, even if he was finally sold in Russia to release cash for the Gones. On the other hand, the second indeed landed in France last winter. Without a club in Ligue 1, Botafogo will lose a weight argument, without insulting the Daring Brussels, and could find it difficult to convince South Americans listed to join them.
Finally, the relegation of OL to L2 would have a logical consequence: a drastic reduction in income. Even if the amounts of TV rights of the L1 are not really dreaming of many people, an OL in L2 would necessarily imply a sharp decline in terms of TV rights income. Not to mention a less important influence of the Rhone club vis-à-vis its sponsors and the potentially revised downward contracts. All without forgetting the shortfall linked to the absence of European competitions. A scenario which, if confirmed, would automatically make Botafogo the most profitable club in Eagle. A new status that would put much more pressure on the Brazilian training which would become the main Mash Machine in Textor. She would be forced to perform in the most remunerative competitions and it is also she who should sell her best players to bail out the funds, pending a possible OL recovery. If tensions are to be feared in Brazil, this is also the case in Belgium.
Belgium also claims Textor's head
The turbulence in Molenbeek reach a paroxysm even though Olympique Lyonnais, another club of John Textor, is struck by the DNCG decision. For the Daring Brussels (RWDM), the season was already compromised: the club was failed in the Jupiler Pro League in April due to financial guarantees deemed insufficient, sealing a bitter end of the play-offs. To this sportswood is added the vacancy at the head of the bench since the eviction of Yannick Ferrera, dismissed in May, plunging the workforce in an increased tactical and psychological uncertainty. A double fracture – sporting and structural – which further weakens an already shaken club. But it is on the identity front that the shock wave is the dull. As of June 6, Textor imposed without consultation a historical name change: Farewell RWDM, place at “Daring Brussels” and new coat of arms … causing an avalanche of anger. For the past two weeks, the streets of Molenbeek have been the scene of a vehement revolt: nearly 400 demonstrators have paraded, brandishing “Textor Out” signs, while a petition has gathered up to 3,000 signatures – signatories including Belgian figures like Franky Vander Elst, Johan Boskamp, Hugo Broos or Anthony Sadin. The supporters denounce a “real betrayal”, reproaching the American shareholder for distorting “the soul of the club”, rooted in the Molenbeek community as the daily newspapers wrote it The evening et The free. Even the municipality threatens to break the occupation agreement of the Edmond Machtens stadium, judging the gesture “deeply insulting” towards the inhabitants.
In this explosive context, the relegation of OL sounds like a blow of grace for Textor. While Lyon is struggling with an unprecedented financial and sporting crisis, Molenbeek also crumbles under the crises: no rise, no coach, massive distrust of supporters, tensions with the municipality, and lambos identity. Assuring two clubs with implosion in a few days, of course, reveals blind management to the realities of passion and history – a dramatic timing, and an alarming signal that financial logic cannot be enough to tame a collective heritage. In Molenbeek as in Lyon, the same symptoms are linked: sports instability, popular distrust, flickering finances, steep decisions and unilateral communication. Two clubs, two stories, two cities, but only one man in the center of chaos: John Textor. Far from his initial promises of harmonious modernization and development, the American entrepreneur now seems to precipitate his projects in a common abyss. In Lyon, the administrative demotion by the DNCG has acted a bankruptcy of governance. In Molenbeek, it is the soul of a flicker club, threatened with symbolic disappearance under the eyes of betrayed supporters.
Pub. the
– Maj the
