The row between Ares Management and John Textor has escalated to the next level. The private capital group filed an application in London’s High Court to appoint administrators to Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited, which holds a majority stake in Eagle Football Group, the owner of Lyon, as well as clubs in Belgium and Brazil.
Eagle is more than a test case for multi-club ownership in
football. It is a coming together of sport and institutional capital. The
outcome will be closely watched.
Private capital firm Ares has appointed administrators to
the owner of Olympique Lyonnais after it defaulted on its debts, in a move that
puts the future of one of France’s leading football clubs in doubt.
Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited holds a majority stake
in Eagle Football Group, the owner of Lyon. Eagle Bidco, which also holds
controlling stakes in Brazilian football club Botafago and Belgian team RWDM
Brussels, is owned by US businessman and prolific football investor John
Textor.
None of the three clubs are in administration themselves and
their operations will continue as normal. Textor’s football group said in a
statement that it was “gravely offended by the unilateral and predatory
decision of Ares Capital Corporation to break apart a financially viable
multi-club business which has successfully turned around insolvent clubs into
sporting success stories which, when operated collaboratively, are cashflow
positive in 2026 and beyond”.
In response, Ares
described statements by Textor as “misleading” and said it would Ares, which is
represented by law firm MacFarlanes, became the largest creditor to Textor’s
“multi-club” group when it lent roughly $400mn to fund the takeover of Lyon in
2022. It then opted not to seize the group’s assets the following year after it
violated the terms of more than $450mn debt carrying interest rates as high as
22 per cent.
Textor disputes that his group defaulted. According to Eagle
Bidco’s long-delayed 2023 accounts, the group owed Ares about $300mn of
“payment in kind” debt with annual interest rates of 16 per cent, another
$135mn at a rate of 18 per cent and a $27mn facility that costs Eagle Football
22 per cent annually.
Textor rose to prominence through the 2021 acquisition of a
large minority stake in Premier League club Crystal Palace, which he sold to
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson last year. Ares pocketed the majority of the
£190mn proceeds from the stake sale, the FT previously reported.
The Eagle administration is a blow for Ares but the firm
made a healthy return from the sale of much its investment in Spanish club
Atlético de Madrid, as well as gains from backing the McLaren Formula 1 team.
Textor’s €884mn takeover of Lyon was a record deal for a French football club.
However, the scale of the club’s losses and debts prompted French football
authorities to threaten Lyon with relegation last year.
The uncertainty over Lyon’s future comes amid wider
struggles in French football. Ligue 1, the top division, launched its own
streaming service for live matches at the start of the 2025-26 season after its
broadcast deal with Sir Leonard Blavatnik’s DAZN collapsed.
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