Textor comes out of silence and pays the media

A speaking that was eagerly awaited. While a relegation to Ligue 2 is fearful by the DNCG and UEFA could exclude the club from all European competitions, John Textor, owner of Olympique Lyonnais came out of his silence. He obviously refutes the latest information that came out and assures working on the full foot to take out the debt club.

It is even very confident, ensuring that “highly integrated global football activity is starting to progress sharply to profitability, thanks to an increase in income, a drop in spending linked to players, an increase in the value of the workforce and an increase in transfer income.”

OL press release

For the attention of supporters of Olympique Lyonnais,

I understand that Olympique Lyonnais must face many challenges in the current economic context of French football, and now European, especially since we have tried to restore our club among the largest European clubs. Today, as in recent days, another journalist has decided to write a hypothetical article which provides disastrous circumstances if certain expectations of the governing bodies in matters of financial viability are not satisfied. The thesis of these articles is always the same: if OL does not stop losing money, or if the shareholders of Eagle decide not to invest more, then OL will be excluded from the championship or UEFA. The details can change, the hypothetical scenarios multiply and become more alarming to each new unconfirmed information, and we simply choose not to respond to most of these articles. In fact, this week, a big media asked me to respond to an apparently well written analysis on our relations with our lenders, published on an Instagram account which has only 6,000 subscribers. Although I appreciate this request, we just can’t worry about all this noise.

That said, when the same journalist, from a major media, writes at least three articles (DNCG, sanctions by Paulo Fonseca and UEFA) which reveal direct sources, predicting alarming scenarios of sanctions and failure, with hypothetical scenarios which are brought to the attention of the journalist before being known to our club – or worse, in some cases, the articles are based on semi -truths are not yet proven and which could never occur, we must react in order to avoid any disinformation that seems (not from the journalist, but of the anonymous source) to have a malicious goal. The article in question published today entitled: “UEFA proposes a” negotiated agreement “to OL, which risks an exclusion from European cuts in the event of refusal”.

Here is again an article written before the club even defended its arguments. This article is based on half-truths presented intentionally pejorative. The truth is that we are entering UEFA competitions with a history of financial losses and a recovery plan is necessary, as can be expected of any club participating in these competitions. We appreciated our collaboration with UEFA and proposed financial projections and a viability plan which, in our view, were welcomed. UEFA has examined our projections and will offer, as usual, an amicable agreement which will impose on our club performance standards which will allow us to regain viability. It is a classic process that allows clubs to take pre-UEFA operational standards to minimum viability standards.

While this journalist wrote an article to brush an extremely negative painting, I spent a pleasant day with UEFA members, I presented to a panel of informed and experienced experts the current and unusual aspects of our economic model. Contrary to what journalists would like to make you believe, I can assure you that we had a great time at UEFA. I am extremely satisfied with the warm, professional and encouraging welcome that the members of the panel have reserved for us. It is clear that UEFA has for our organization of objectives very similar to ours. We resumed a club whose size and expenses were excessive, and which had not managed to maintain itself at UEFA level. We are challenging to give this club its legitimate status as a leading European competitor, while improving its financial efficiency.

What the journalist has reported is essentially true for all the organizations that have invested massively, in terms of losses and talents, to return to the European scene. If we do not restore our profitability at the same time as our competitiveness, we will be sanctioned – it is life as we know it in football – and the reason why this journalist continues to present dark scenarios from a clearly malicious source is a completely different question.

In the end, this article cannot be considered as a faithful description of the reality of our clubs, because the half-truths are dangerous-the whole truth is much more enlightening. To conclude, I therefore invite you to take into account some additional elements …

My partners at Eagle Football invested massively in Olympique Lyonnais in order to rebuild our competitiveness and bring important trophies to Lyon. Since December 2022, in addition to the cost of our OL acquisition, we have invested more than 293 million euros directly in your club. Of course, our investment funded the heavy operating losses from which we have inherited, but we have also invested massively in our workforce in order to be competitive to win European titles at increasingly high levels. From an accounting point of view, these losses and investments have consequences: today’s investment in a player becomes the “damping” of tomorrow, recorded as a financial loss. These losses and investments must be covered, as in any other business, and we will continue to do so in Lyon.

So what can you expect for the future? Well, our highly integrated world football activity is starting to record significant progress towards profitability, thanks to the increase in income, the decline in spending related to players, increased the value of the workforce and the rise in revenues related to players’ transfers. By June 30, 2025, our football activities, both worldwide and in France, will be well positioned to achieve profitability, which is the very definition of sustainability. We still have to pay the price of the errors of the past. We must continue to raise equity in order to reduce our debt linked to acquisitions and players and to strengthen our balance sheet to carry out our future ambitions. We presented this plan to the UEFA, which should hold us responsible for its implementation (as it would do with any other club), and we intend to achieve all our objectives to rebuild your club, both financially and on the sporting level. “