Target of protests this Saturday (24), before the Botafogo match against Banguno Carioca Championshipat the Nilton Santos Stadium, John Textor explained how he will take down the ‘transferban‘ which has affected the club since the last day of last year.
In an interview with the channel ‘Alvinegra Arena‘, the owner of SAF do Botafogo apologized for the “lack of transparency” and stated that the club will receive a “significant” new investment to avoid FIFA’s punishment.
“As we negotiate with Ares, these negotiations have to be confidential. Negotiations have to be kept quiet until they are complete. In recent days we have had approval to bring a significant amount of capital to the club. We have had approval from Eagle,” he said.
“I have to go through the process. The good news is that the independent directors approved the capital contribution. I apologize for the lack of transparency, but this needed to be kept confidential”, he added.
The North American businessman also explained how this financial contribution will work in Glorioso. Textor states that investors will have a “path” to also become “owners of Botafogo”.
“The money inflow structure is designed to provide investors with a path to ownership. The structure is to create a path to ‘ownership’. These partners join me. It is a friendly structure for the future of Botafogo. It gives us independence from the old Eagle and Ares structure. These are investors who have a path to becoming owners of Botafogo”, he commented.
“The money was approved to arrive this week. All the athletes we want to sign will be ready to sign. I’m not talking about specific days. These are international calls. That resolves the issue.”transferban‘. That’s all I’m going to say”, he concluded.
Still talking about the club’s financial situation, Textor stated that the Lyon owes money to Botafogo and this impacts the debts of the Rio team.
“There were more than 140 million euros in financial connections from Brazil to France. Connections that came from France to Botafogo, less than 40 million euros. We have credits that we gave to France if we sold players with French rights. The French club owes 34 million euros to our Brazilian club. These are the facts”, he said.
“Lyon owes a significant amount of money to Botafogo. We will collect this debt. But this has created a significant amount of debt”, he concluded.
