French football is facing an earthquake: As announced on Friday, the traditional club Olympique Lyon is facing the prospect of being relegated.
On Friday evening, it was announced that the financial control of French football has imposed a transfer ban on the heavily indebted club for the coming winter – and has also provisionally relegated it to the second division. The big question here is: what does provisional mean?
The answer is quite simple: Lyon would only avoid relegation if their precarious financial situation does not improve significantly by the end of the season. However, Olympique’s owner, US businessman John Textor, appeared optimistic after the hearing in Paris. The 59-year-old said he was “not at all worried” and “confident about our figures”.
Meanwhile, the club said it would “raise several hundred million euros in the coming months”. Olympique Lyon is part of the conglomerate “Eagle Football Holdings”, which also includes Crystal Palace (England), FC Florida (USA), RWD Molenbek (Belgium) and Botafogo (Brazil). Textor, which bought OL from Jean-Michel Aulas in 2023, then also pointed out that you have to look at the “full picture” of the parent company to be able to assess the situation.
Huge mountain of debt weighs on OL
The responsible controlling body in France did the same, only they obviously came to a different conclusion than Textor. Last week, the French National Directorate for Management Control (DNCG) announced that the Eagle Football Group, part of the holding company, was burdened with a debt of 463.8 million euros. Currently, the amount has even grown to over 505 million euros, as OL itself recently confirmed in a press release.
In order to make a quick buck, Lyon will likely have to rely on transfer income in the winter. The French top talent Rayan Cherki (21) or the only 19-year-old Belgian Malick Fofana are among the French club’s crown jewels. According to CBS, there is even talk that Textor could sell its shares in Crystal Palace – which would be worth several hundred million euros.
It is currently unclear what consequences all this will have for the women of Olympique Lyon, who have been among the top teams in Europe for years and who still belong to a small percentage of the OL group.
