John Textor's Lyon have been demoted to French Ligue 2 because of the poor state of their finances.

The club were provisionally demoted by the DNGC, the body which oversees the accounts of French professional football clubs, in November.

Lyon officials including Textor, met with the DNGC on Tuesday but failed to convince the body that the club had sufficiently improved their financial situation to lift the punishment. Last October, Textor's Eagle Football Group announced debts of £422m.

Seven-time French champions Lyon raised around £45M with the sales of Maxence Caqueret to Como in January and Rayan Cherki to Manchester City in June in an attempt to improve their finances.

High earners such as Alexandre Lacazette and Anthony Lopes have also been released.

Lyon have the right to appeal against the decision. Should it stand, Lyon will be replaced in the top flight by Reims, who were beaten in the relegation play-off by Metz.

Textor is also the largest shareholder of Brazilian club Botafogo and co-owner of Premier League club Crystal Palace, though he agreed a deal to sell his 46% stake in the Eagles on Monday.

Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup but their place is in doubt because Lyon also qualified by finishing sixth in Ligue 1.

Textor's perceived involvement with both clubs could be in breach Uefa rules, which prevent multiple teams under one multi-club ownership structure competing in the same European competition.

The Eagles hope Textor's decision to sell his stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson will avoid that scenario.

Reader Comments (7)

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Paul Kossoff
1 Posted 24/06/2025 at 21:05:41
French club Lyon have been demoted to Ligue 2 because of the poor state of their finances.

Can the Premier League do that to a club in England?

Ian Jones
2 Posted 24/06/2025 at 21:05:44
Any players from Lyon worth having?
Mike Gaynes
3 Posted 24/06/2025 at 21:20:24
Ian, yeah, the possible Lyon bargain shelf has some attractive items... we've been connected to winger Nuamah for months, and they have a couple of other hot young forwards in Mikautadze and Fofana, although the latter seems headed for Chelsea.

And Ian, from what I'm reading, the relegation doesn't keep Lyon out, so Textor's share sale will still go through (Woody Johnson is kind of a turd), but I still think we dodged a bullet not having that guy as our owner.

As to the Seamus controversy, I'm among those who believe he now lacks the legs for the Prem, based on the last few games I saw him play, when he couldn't close down to prevent a cross -- similar to what we saw from Bainesy in his final season. But we've heard subsequently that Seamus was out there despite carrying an injury.

If Moyes thinks he can still play, I'm willing to accede to his judgement. And if our $8 billion owner thinks he's worthy of a contract, because of his playing skills or his leadership presence or both, I'm not gonna dispute that either. Seeing folks complain about what "we" pay a player always makes me smile, because "we" don't have the name Friedkin on our checking accounts. It's his money, not ours.

Michael Kenrick
4 Posted 24/06/2025 at 21:34:05
Paul @1… well, yes and no.

Yes, a Premier League club could be relegated due to financial issues.

Remember the bit where the corrupt Premier League were making up the rules as they went along with us? Well, in reality, all the rules were written in the Premier League Handbook, where the punishments they could come up with included expulsion from the Premier League (relegation, in effect, if the EFL would have you).

But no, technically it wouldn't be the Premier League doing the relegating. It would be the Independent Commission, who actually had the task of making up whatever punishment they felt warranted.

But we didn't like them rules... so we printed thousands of 'Currupt' placards… and we stayed up anyway — even though the Premier League were apparently out to have us relegated.

Paul Kossoff
5 Posted 24/06/2025 at 23:34:57
Micheal, thanks, I was worried about what the corrupt P L could do, but as you said, they can make up and alter whatever they want, to keep us all, well most of us, in control, Man City and Chelsea not included.

Did you hear about the Chelsea owner making profits on ticket resales? He owns a company called vivid seats.

Angry Chelsea fans called on the Premier League to act and investigate co-owner Boehly's 'unauthorised' resale website Vivid Seats, which sells tickets at vastly inflated prices. Supporters have claimed that Boehly's actions are a "breach of trust" and also undermine attempts to combat ticket touting. Boehly is an investor and director of the US-based Vivid Seats, which is on the Premier League’s list of "unauthorised ticketing websites".

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/premier-league-asks-chelsea-clarify-relationship-todd-boehly-s-unauthorised-ticket-resale-website/blt1669bd288e883509

Dale Self
6 Posted 25/06/2025 at 00:50:15
I thought Lyon being relegated opened the door for Palace to compete in Europa. Two clubs from same ownership group cannot both qualify, this is what supposedly kept Leon out of the Club WC since Pachuca was in that competition. Maybe irregularities from Textor's involvement changes that.

Selling Eze and unwinding from Textor will could tie Palace in knots, allowing us to jump over them as well. Hopefully, the Jets owner will show us what a good Yank he is and get greedy on terms.

Si Cooper
7 Posted 25/06/2025 at 04:14:11
Dale (6), they’ve been relegated due to poor financial state but it’s not stated that it was due to points being deducted.
I presume the records still show them finishing high enough up in their domestic league to qualify for the Europa?
Might just be a formality for them now to be expelled from the European competition they qualified for?

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