US businessman and soccer club owner John Textor has stated his intent to divest from his holdings in English soccer club Crystal Palace in order to redirect his investment into another Premier League (EPL) club, reportedly Everton.
Textor has a 45% stake in Crystal Palace through his Eagle Football Group holding company but has now appointed the Raine Group financial advisory service to facilitate a sale.
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In a statement, Textor said that the way Eagle Football intends to operate its “integrated” multi-club ownership model is incompatible with how Crystal Place is run.
He added: “As proud as we are to have been part of the resurgence of Crystal Palace, it remains true that Crystal Palace is an independent club run by a man [Steve Parish] with a steady hand who has achieved a level of sustainability that is incredibly rare in today's Premier League."
Textor became a co-owner of Palace in 2021 but has stated since that his ambition is to compete for trophies in England as a club owner, something which would require a level of spending and volatility that Parish and Palace’s other major shareholders are likely to be uneasy with.
A perceived lack of desire from the Palace hierarchy to integrate more with Eagle Football Group’s other global array of teams, namely France’s Olympique Lyonnais, Brazil’s Botafogo, and Belgium’s RWD Molenbeek, is a likely driver behind Textor’s divestment, as players often are moved between the clubs for both sporting and financial reasons, a practice that is legal but can be perceived as a method for getting around financial fair play restrictions.
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By GlobalDataTextor is now reportedly eyeing up beleaguered EPL side Everton, and he has told news outlets that he is in conversations with the club over a potential purchase, with the club’s negotiations with primary ownership candidate 777 Partners looking increasingly unlikely to come to fruition.
Earlier in May, courts in Belgium and Brazil seized control of the soccer sides 777 own in the country due to debt defaults and fraud allegations respectively, and with managing partners Josh Wander and Steven Pasko stepping back from the firm, the door is now open for investors such as Textor to save Everton from further peril.
777's negotiation period with Everton expires on May 31, at which point other potential bidders can enter into talks with current majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
