The announcement fell as a cleaver on Tuesday evening: Olympique Lyonnais, unable to convince the DNCG of the solidity of its project, is demoted in League 2.. If John Textor, an American owner of OL, displayed an optimism of facade at the end of his hearing, the financial reality caught it. The businessman, already under pressure from his coactionitians and supporters, now sees his status as a seriously threatened privileged interlocutor, according to L'Equipe.
At the heart of the turmoil, the Investment Fund Ares, the main creditor of Textor, is ready to act. The 210 million euros from the sale of Crystal Palace shares will not benefit directly at OL: most of the amount is intended to reimburse Ares, only 40 million euros could be injected into the club's funds, subject to validation by the Premier League. This scenario recalls the previous AC Milan, where the Elliott fund had regained the hand after the failure of the main investor.
Faced with the distrust of French authorities and the need to present a substantial cash contribution during the call, Ares could choose to rule out Textor, at least temporarily, to control the club's recovery and preserve its financial interests. A hypothesis deemed credible by several observers, while the return of known figures, such as Laurent Prud'homme, is mentioned to reassure the DNCG and the partners.
In this uncertain context, OL still awaits the official notification of the DNCG and actively prepares its appeal file. But a question now dominates debates: has John Textor lost his hand on the future of Lyon, and is Ares the last rampart before a major crisis?
