John Textor, president and owner of Olympique Lyonnais. (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)
Olympique Lyonnais is reportedly on the verge of selling its training center, located in Meyzieu. A transaction which could bring in around 20 million euros for the club.
But where will John Textor stop? After having sold, among others, the LDLC Arena and the OL women’s team, the American owner of the Lyon club would consider selling the club’s training center to his friend Michelle Kang, owner of the women’s section.
According to our colleagues from the Team, this sale could bring 20 million euros into the coffers of OL, at a time when the Rhone club is looking for liquidity to satisfy the DNCG, the financial policeman of French football. If OL had appealed the sanctions (recruitment ban, payroll control) to the FFF appeals committee, the latter disavowed the Lyon club on Friday January 10 and maintained the decisions taken by the DNCG in first instance. Thus, John Textor’s club is prohibited from recruiting this winter and remains under threat of demotion to Ligue 2 at the end of this season.
A move near Groupama Stadium?
Faced with this situation, OL would therefore be on the verge of ceding the lease and premises of the Academy to Michelle Kang. The latter could also, with this transaction, take a larger share in the women’s team, while it currently holds 52%. OL women could also use this new land in Meyzieu to build their new stadium.
A sale which raises a lot of questions, in particular on the continuity of the services offered by the Academy to future players of the Lyon club. If its (relative) geographical distance from the Groupama Stadium has always been criticized by John Textor, the Academy being located 3 kilometers from the stadium and the training center, the training center could, in the long term, move to new premises near the stadium.
The American owner’s desire would be to group all the club’s activities around the stadium. A rapprochement that will not happen overnight. And which could lead, in the meantime and in the event of the sale of the training center, to a fairly unprecedented situation for the Lyon club, which has made its Academy one of its greatest successes in recent years.
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