New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has signed a deal to purchase 43% of soccer club Crystal Palace from John Textor, the club announced on its website Monday.
“Whilst the completion is pending approval from the Premier League and Women’s Super League, we do not envisage any issues and look forward to welcoming Woody as a partner and director of the club,” the team said in its brief statement.
The deal is worth about $254 million , according to a Reuters story, citing unspecified media reports. Crystal Palace is the 50th-most valuable soccer team on the planet, worth $610 million, according to Sportico’s latest global soccer valuations.
The sale comes as UEFA has been debating if Palace can participate in the Europa League, given the organization bars teams with overlapping ownership from the same competition. Textor owns a stake in France’s Lyon club. Johnson’s purchase also comes with Palace at a high on the pitch: the club won England’s FA Cup this past season, its first major trophy in its 164-year existence.
Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, bought the Jets from the estate of Leon Hess in 2000. He had been U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. during Donald Trump’s first administration.
PE titans David Blitzer and Josh Harris, founders of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, are among Palace’s minority investors.
(This story has been updated with the final paragraph.)