Majority shareholder of , is close to closing the sale of its part of Crystal Palace for US$ 185 million (around R$ 1.1 billion), according to information released by the website The Athleticlinked to the newspaper The New York Times. The businessman has 45% of the British club’s shares and has forwarded an agreement to sell them to a group of investors from Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The group is financed by brothers Mansoor and Haider Syed, Saudis raised in the United States. The initial proposal presented by them was lower than Textor expected, so they raised the numbers to reach an agreement. Once negotiations between the two parties are finalized, approval from the Premier League, the league that organizes the English Championship, will still be required for the sale to be completed.
Despite the agreement, the interest of Sportsbank, a group led by banker Keith Haris, in investing in Eagle Football, the holding company that controls Botafogo, Crystal Palace, Lyon and RWD Molenbeek, from Belgium, is still alive. According to the The AthleticHarris and his partners would not buy Eagle’s stake in Palace, but Textor would give up his position on the British club’s board and Sportsbank would take control.
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“I want to be involved in an English club that wins championships, at the top of the league. And this requires taking risks that can also take you in the opposite direction. I don’t know if this strategy is necessarily correct for Palace. There must be other people a little more patient than me, and maybe impatience isn’t necessarily good for Palace,” Textor said in a recent interview with The Athleticto explain the reasons for trying to sell the team.
There are, however, reasons linked to Eagle Football’s financial situation, which recorded a deficit of 25.7 million euros (R$170 million at current prices) at the end of the 2023/24 season. According to the French press, the company’s debt is approximately 500 million euros (R$3.1 billion).
The situation generated apprehension for Lyon. The National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) of the French Professional Football League (Ligue 1) that the club be prevented from registering new athletes. If the board is unable to regularize the situation at the end of the season, in June 2025, harsh punishments will be applied, including relegation to the second division.
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In October 2024, Eagle announced a recapitalization plan that aims to raise US$1.1 billion (R$6.7 billion) as part of the process to list on the New York Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2025. most of the amount would be used to pay off the holding company’s debts, through the sale of its stake in Crystal Palace, and through an Initial Share Offering (IPO).
