Textor loses control of Eagle Football as creditor takes over

Former Crystal Palace owner John Textor “lost control of his Eagle Football multi-club empire.” Getty Images

Former Crystal Palace owner John Textor “lost control of his Eagle Football multi-club empire” after its main creditor Ares Capital Corporation “put the group’s UK-based holding company into administration” on Friday. Eagle Football Holdings Bidco is “now under the control” of insolvency firm Cork Gully, who will “immediately start looking for buyers” for Eagle’s majority stakes in Brazilian club Botafogo, French club Lyon and Belgium club RWDM Brussels. Ares took this step because of “events of default under its financial agreements” with Eagle, including the company’s “repeated failure to file accounts and other financial statements on time.” Textor reacted to the news with his “customary mix of bravado and defiance.” Eagle Football in a statement said that it was “‘gravely offended by the unilateral and predatory decision’ of Ares to ‘break apart a financially viable multi-club business’ that Textor claims has turned ‘insolvent clubs into sporting success stories’” (THE ATHLETIC, 3/27).