John Textor’s Soccer Empire at Risk: Eagle Football Enters UK Restructuring

Eagle Football Holdings—the entity that holds John Textor’s stakes in several soccer clubs, including Olympique Lyonnais in France and Botafogo in Brazil—was placed under the control of a U.K. restructuring administrator on Friday. Ares Management, a private credit firm that lent millions to Eagle Football, appointed Cork Gully as administrator of the holding company due to “events of default under its financial agreements”.

A restructuring process like this in the U.K. involves an administrator taking control of a distressed company to manage its debts and potentially sell assets so that creditors can get repaid. Cork Gully assumes control of the holding company but not the clubs themselves—the teams will “continue to operate as normal,” and none of them are considered insolvent.

Ares Management, which lent millions to Eagle Football, appointed Cork Gully as administrator of the holding company due to “events of default under its financial agreements”. Potential suitors can now place bids to buy Eagle Football Holdings or the individual stakes it holds in Lyon, Botafogo, and Belgium-based RWDM Brussels.

“Their primary objective is to rescue Eagle Bidco as a going concern,” according to Friday’s statement. If that is not possible, they will seek to achieve a better outcome for creditors than might otherwise be available. Failing both of those outcomes, the administrators will seek to realise the company’s assets for the benefit of creditors.

Textor’s company issued a statement on Friday, saying Eagle Football is “gravely offended by the unilateral and predatory decision” of Ares 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.” Textor argues that the supposed defaults were of a technical nature, and that they were caused by Ares.

The statement pointed to a claim previously made by Textor—that Michele Kang, who owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, “secretly took control” of Lyon over the summer through the creation of an illegal “shadow board.”

Kang was installed as leader of Lyon over the summer, and publicly she and Textor appeared to be on the same page. But behind the scenes, Textor claims Kang had already entered into a “secret” side agreement with Ares Management. In February, Textor told Front Office Sports Kang made “one hell of a power play” by taking full control of Lyon and setting up the “shadow board”.

Textor told FOS in February that the actions taken by Ares to effectively seize control of Lyon would put it in hot water with Autorité des marchés financiers, the markets regulator in France, because “they took over the club without due process. They concealed it.” He sent a letter to the AMF on Jan. 28 outlining his claims. The regulator on Feb. 26 sent a letter to Kang acknowledging it was looking into the supposed existence of the side agreement, and whether there were any associated regulatory or disclosure requirements, according to documents viewed by FOS.

Eagle Football said in its Friday statement that “in spite of our objections, Eagle Football does look forward to working with the administrator to hold Ares accountable for its actions, and clear violations of law, as we surely expect to regain control of our business.” A representative for Ares said in a statement that the firm “notes the highly misleading and inaccurate statements by John Textor and will defend its position through the proper legal channels”.

The situation highlights an ongoing dispute over the control of Olympique Lyonnais and the future of Textor's soccer clubs.