Discarded from his position as OL administrator, John Textor will no doubt never reappear in Lyon even if he is still largely in the majority of the Holdings Board of Directors. One thing is certain: the American has left many corpses in the cupboards for his friend Michele Kang, who succeeded him, as well as for the lending background Arès. We take stock.
Over 270 million € in dilapidated active ingredients
In John Textor's semantics, refocusing OL's activities around male football made it possible to justify the fact of dismantling in broad outline the project set up by Jean-Michel Aulas. In the space of two and a half years, many assets deemed not essential have left OL Group (now called Eagle Football Group). Thus, Textor sold for 160 M € the LDLC Arena (resumption of the loan + 16 M € set in shares by Holnest + 54 M € of cash) and OL Reign for 54 M €. Michele Kang also took advantage of this large clearance sale to acquire more than 84% of women's OL (valued at € 37 million) by paying only € 11 million in cash and recovering for 20 M € the lease of OL Académie de Meyzieu.
In total, it is more than € 270 million in assets that went up in smoke without it serving to lower the debt since a very large part of the liquidity generated went to the famous “common pot” Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited. Today, because of its transfers, Michele Kang must work with a club whose amount of assets is less than the debt.
Gifts made in Botafogo who dug debt
Because John Textor did not paint Botafogo with Arès and because he set up his project with the CEO of the Brazilian club Thairo Arruda, the American did everything to advantaging the last winner of the Copa Libertadores, even if it means largely siphoning the Lyonnais. In the summer of 2023, after having ejected Jean-Michel Aulas, the Lyon de Textor notably invested in OL Ltda BRL (€ 48.9 million). A company that he sold a year later in Botafogo for more than ten times less and which he used to borrow € 63 million in Brazil (ready on display at the reais which appears in OL accounting reports!). In 2024, another OL Brazil company was created, there too to invest directly in Botafogo (€ 8.2 million loaned by OL SASU).
Several alert launchers on X and Youtube (Laurenzo, Micka, Malekao, Don Ramon) also highlighted a largely beneficiary maneuver in Botafogo with players bought directly by OL for Carioca training (L.henrique, T.almada, I.Jesus, J.Cunha?), Then economic rights ceded to Lyon for a higher sum (+150% Immediate added value of € 50 million) and on which “Fogo” would have systematically faced. A certainly legal maneuver which allowed an immediate cash gain for Botafogo … but which is disastrous for OL which will have to reimburse the sums invoiced to financial companies by recovering in return only the fruit of sales made by the defending Brazil champion. Sales – some of which were made at a discount (like that of Igor Jesus for € 12 million at Nottingham Forest) – and on which he has no right to look so as not to fall under the regulations around the third property of the players, prohibited by FIFA.
A delusional wage bill
It is the last corpse of the closet but not the least bulky. By chaining the big transfers each time the DNCG authorized it to recruit, John Textor has exploded the wage bill of OL. From € 130 million on average at the time Jean-Michel Aulas, the weight of employees within the club rose up to € 170-180 M for financial year 2024-25, imposing a job safeguard plan and the departure of 100 employees but also the major degreasing of the workforce last winter. There are also some “quirks” in this file. Thus, the Team tells us that OL has 54 players players this season when its workforce has never exceeded thirty units. Difficult to know where all these players were counted in the salary mass of the season (salaries of Botafogo players paid by OL?). The fact remains that at a time when European financial fair play requires clubs not to spend more than 70% of their income in payroll, Lyon is today very far from nails and, if the Gones survive their passage in Federal DNCG this Thursday, they will necessarily have to further reduce the sail to correct the errors of John Textor. Not content to have exploded the net cash debt and debt on players contracts via expensive and unreasonable purchases (Niakhate, Mangala, Nuamah), the Eagle group boss added a very problematic section to the club's future equation. Provided that this future still exists …
