American businessman John Textor was temporarily removed from command of SAF in Botafogo, in a decision determined by the FGV Arbitration Court (Fundação Getúlio Vargas). The removal will still be voted on and analyzed again next Wednesday (29), when the parties involved will be able to speak out.
According to the three FGV court arbitrators, Textor’s recent measures “have the potential to cause irreparable damage to shareholders and the entire Botafogo fan community.” Among the measures cited for the businessman’s removal is the precautionary action to begin the SAF judicial recovery process, filed on Tuesday (21). The request was made amid debt of R$2.5 billion.
Based on this, the court decided to immediately remove the American, following the request of Eagle Bidco, the majority shareholder of SAF.
In a statement, the SAF criticized the removal. “The decision advances on a typically corporate matter, replacing, exceptionally and without due deliberation, the will of the shareholders, whose manifestation, by legal and statutory definition, must occur at a regularly called meeting”, says an excerpt from the statement.
Although Danilo Caixeiro, who serves as operational head of the SAF, supervising all departments, appears immediately below Textor in the organization chart, the SAF decided to appoint Durcesio Mello, former president of the social club, to serve as general director in the American’s absence.
To site.com, Textor said he believed in the decision being reviewed. “I received the decision with great serenity and respect for the court. But it was a decision based on incorrect and misleading information presented by Ares’ lawyers, which misled the arbitrators,” said the businessman.
Ares is a fund that lent money to the businessman to buy Lyon and never received the amount back. The American gave shares in Botafogo’s SAF as collateral for the loan. With this, Ares started to make management decisions at Eagle, a club holding company created by the American.
