investor of SAF do Botafogo, Crystal Palace, Lyon e RWD Molenbeek, John Textor explained the idea of Eagle Football. The American businessman pointed out that he does not like the term “multi-club structure” and detailed how he thinks of a collaboration system between clubs so that all grow and succeed.
In an interview excerpt released on Lyon’s official Twitter profile (the entirety will be aired on the French team’s app), John Textor reaffirmed that “neither club will feed the other”.
Read John Textor’s response below:
“There are many questions about where Eagle Football is and how Lyon will fit into the project. I don’t like the term multi-club structure, although they define us that way because we have several clubs. But we are not on a “synergy” approach like other investors who proceed to buy many clubs and increase revenue by sharing operations, sponsors…
We’re not in a merger process, it’s not me, it’s not the reason I’m doing this. I see it more as an additional collaboration to improve the competition strategy. Money is the watchword in football nowadays, it broke some professional leagues, with the arrival of oil states or oligarchs that created clubs that give results, all over the world.
I prefer a collaboration between several clubs that have a global brand in talent identification. Sporting directors can develop personal connections and get to know the levels of players in each part of the world. Football is very concentrated locally to reveal its talents, whatever the region of the world, Europe or Africa. There are many regions in the world that love football, that would like to get into European football and that don’t have access to the system.
I like this collaboration between communities, between clubs. I like it when Brazilian fans see Crystal Palace or Lyon clubs as “brothers” on social media, even if not all fans are like that in this case. Some are only interested in their team and that’s normal. But I think that’s what differentiates us from multi-club strategies: no club is there to feed the others, there is no small or big club.
When people ask me how Lyon will integrate into Eagle Football, I answer that it’s not an integration, Eagle is not a box or a house. Lyon remains Lyon and its community wants the club to be champions. In Rio, the fans want Botafogo to be champions. Some fans challenge me on social media to invest all my time and money in their club. I can understand, but I believe in these wonderful relationships that are being forged between scouts, football managers, clubs. It’s about players, it’s about succeeding together.
My sporting director in Brazil called me recently to tell me that there is a problem with our left-back, and I told him “what are you talking about, we have Marçal, he came from Lyon, he is great!” And he answers me, “no, we love Marçal, I’m talking about our left-back from Belgium!”.
I like the idea that our staffs in Brazil are worried about our players in Belgium and that they are worried about the best way to help Lyon or Crystal Palace. No club exists to feed others, the benefits of relationships are reciprocal and of course not everyone understands that. Some fans don’t care about Brazil and are only interested in their team in France and should move in that direction. But there are alternative methods of competition that we need to explore, collaboration and capital can combine for our success.”
See the video:
???? “I don’t like the term multi-club structure”, @JohnTextor explains his vision and how OL will fit into the Eagle Football project.
An interview to discover soon in full on @OLPLAY_Official ! pic.twitter.com/hKeGmlRdoO
— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) January 20, 2023
