John Textor, Lyon owner: “We won’t be relegated, that won’t happen”

Owner and President of the company Lyon, John Textorassured this Saturday that the club “will not be relegated to the second division” due to its financial situation, and detailed a plan to allocate the necessary financial resources.

At a press conference, the American businessman detailed how he plans to lift the sanctions imposed on Friday by the US authorities. Main Directorate of Management Control (GDKG) French football, including ban on signing a contract on the winter market and the threat of relegation at the end of the season if he doesn’t improve his accounts.

Textor assured that in the short term he will have important sources of income, including The 200 million euros he hopes to raise with the sale of his participation in the English club Crystal Palace. In addition, he plans to receive other 100 million dollars What do you expect to gain from your group going public on the New York Stock Exchange? Eagle Football Club And Another 55 million euros for player transfers from Lyon.

According to the American manager, Olympique Lyonnais’ current squad has 29 players, which is “six or seven more” than needed. This surplus of players is due to the efforts the club had to make last winter when it signed several players to avoid the relegation zone.

“We have a problem not with money, but with perception”– said Textor, who believes that the DGCG auditors made a mistake when they checked only the statements of the French club, in which debt to third parties in the amount of 423.3 million euros.

If for some reason all of these strategies fail, we will have incredibly wealthy shareholders and members who will prevent the club from collapsing.

John Textor, owner and president of Lyon

The owner of Lyon regrets that the DGCG did not take into account the state of the finances of his multinational football company, which manages several football clubs around the world, including Botafogo Brazilian and Molenbeek Belgian. “What is wrong with the system is that (DGCG) tries to predict the future and assumes that mistakes may be made, so they are punishing them now. I want to be clear: We’re not going down. This won’t happen. This is just a warning unless we take certain measures.“Textor said.

He insisted that “we have resources that go far beyond the needs of this club. We showed them how we plan to approach this situation methodically.” “And if for some reason all of these strategies fail, we will have incredibly wealthy shareholders and participants. (…) that they will not allow the club to be relegated,” he concluded.

The French sports press notes this Saturday that Lyon’s most attractive players are the strikers. Ryan Cherki

(French, 21 years old) and Georges Mikautadze (24-year-old Georgian), both assessed at 20 million euros for Transfermarkt.

Players with the best Lyon poster

• Ryan Cherki, worth 20 million euros

• Georges Mikautadze, worth 20 million euros

Press conference, which was also attended by the club’s general director, Laurent Prudhommewas held in an atmosphere of tension as the club did not allow access to cameras or live radio broadcasts. Security was also increased at the entrance to the training center out of concern that fans who were unhappy or concerned about the situation might show up, which ultimately did not happen.