Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor is not in the football finance business to make friends.
Indeed, he has made an enemy of the most powerful man in football in Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari president of Paris Saint-Germain, who sits on UEFA’s executive and is chairman of the increasingly influential European Club Association (ECA). Incidentally, Crystal Palace are one of the only Premier League clubs who are not yet members of the ECA.
Al-Khelaifi is chairman of beIN Sports too. The broadcaster has just paid £500m to extend their deal to air the Premier League in the Middle East and North Africa. What’s more, beIN also hold a portion of the domestic rights for Ligue 1, which has brought John Textor and Al-Khelaifi into conflict with one another.
Crystal Palace, Lyon and Botafogo owner John Textor looks on
Photo by Wagner Meier/Getty Images
Textor owns Ligue 1’s Olympique Lyon, who are on the other side of Crystal Palace’s administrative row with UEFA about their participation in next season’s Europa League.
In February at a crisis meeting of French top-flight club owners relating to the early termination of their £350m-a-year TV deal with DAZN, Textor accused Al-Khelaifi of being a “bully” and a “tyrant”.
Al-Khelaifi’s response was not particularly diplomatic.
“John, shut up, you don’t understand anything. You’re a cowboy who came from nowhere,” he said in the meeting which, remarkably, was captured on video.
Lyon played PSG a few days later. Textor gleefully donned a cowboy hat for the occasion. Mouth-wateringly, PSG and one of Textor’s other teams, Botafogo, play each other in the Club World Cup on Friday.
It’s box-office stuff, but it’s not the kind of delicate diplomacy advocated by Textor’s peers in the Palace boardroom, Steve Parish, Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
That’s just one chaotic chapter in the odyssey that is Textor’s globe-trotting odyssey in football finance. There are many more. Too many to go into here, in fact, but suffice to say that the American won’t be getting many Christmas cards from South London once his time at Selhurst Park is finally over.
Saudi links would have complicated Crystal Palace takeover deal
For over a year, Textor has wanted to sell his 43 per cent stake in Crystal Palace. The Europa League drama – whose outcome will be based on whether the 59-year-old is deemed to have ‘decisive control’ in SE19 – appears to have lit a fire under that process.
Textor’s argument, one which ostensibly passes the smell-test, is that he does not have ‘decisive control’ and has been complaining about that very fact for years.
In September, the investor failed to get his ducks in a row for a deal to buy Everton. More recently, he held a period of exclusive talks with a Saudi-US consortium fronted by Mansoor and Haider Syed.
Little is known about the Saudi-born, US-educated brothers, but one source suggested to TBR Football that potential conflict of interest concerns related to Saudi Public Investment Fund-owned Newcastle United were one factor behind the bid’s collapse.
A closeup shot of the Crystal Palace badge on the club's home kit
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
Later, a group fronted by investment banker and former Everton director Keith Harris agreed a period of exclusivity to buy into Eagle Football, the entity in which Textor – who owns about 60 per cent of the company – houses his various football investments.
Again, that deal fell through, though the news that Eagle have filed official paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to publicly list shares in the £1.5bn company in the United States is believed to have piqued Harris’ interest once more.
Now, the other groups and individuals involved in the Syed brothers’ proposal have re-formed under new lead financiers in Bejan Esmaili and Wajid Mir, who previously held senior positions at Morgan Stanley and Roc Nation respectively.
While Mir has not worked at the company for several years and the Palace bid is a private venture and not from the sports and entertainment agency itself, Roc Nation executives have long admired Crystal Palace as a business prospect, as previously revealed by TBR Football.
Sources optimistic about Palace’s Europa League fate
Other industry sources have told this site that, given the time pressure and the period necessary to complete the Premier League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test, the sale of Textor’s shares to a third party is unlikely to have a material impact on whether or not Palace are allowed to compete in the 2025-26 Europa League.
But it is also understood that the club themselves are confident that they will reach a solution with UEFA, for whom it would be a PR disaster if they were to undermine the feel-good story of 2024-25 in underdog FA Cup winners qualifying for European football for the very first time.
However, the ruling on whether or not Textor’s relationship with Palace defies the statutes outlined in UEFA Article 5 on multi-club ownership will be an independent process, overseen by the First Chamber and potentially the Appeals Chamber of the governing body’s Club Financial Control Body.
John Textor will be up on Selhurst Park investment whatever happens, says finance expert
Textor’s valuation of his 43 per cent Palace stake has been variously reported as between £175m and £190m.
Elsewhere, however, reputable outlets like Forbes, Bloomberg, Football Benchmark and Sportico have appraised the club at close to £600m.
Rank Club Value One-year change League Owners Revenue
29 Crystal Palace $790 million 1% English Premier League Eagle Football, Josh Harris, David Blitzer, Steve Parish $221 million
Even allowing for the remaining 57 per cent of the club’s equity it’s a big discrepancy.
But, as University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire points out in exclusive conversation with TBR Football,
“John Textor’s potential sale of his stake in Crystal Palace for £175m values the club at just over £400m,” says the Price of Football author.
“On first inspection, that might look a little bit low. But it is a minority stake and he has been complaining for years that it’s one of his worst-ever purchases because it doesn’t let him have any control of the club.
“That’s because of the way the shareholdings are allocated in terms of votes, which has a negative impact on what he can expect to recoup.
“Some observers think he’s in a forced sale position, so they’ll be able to have extra leverage over him. Also, whoever acquires his shares in Palace will be facing a significant infrastructure spend if the club goes ahead with its plans to expand the capacity of Selhurst Park.
“If you put those three factors together, £175m isn’t a cheap asking price. It will also result in a big profit for Textor himself.
“That will be useful for him because his other clubs do appear to be under some strain and distress.”