Textor is suing Kang for $400m over the Lyon takeover. Lyon say the €700m+ turnover is questionable under Textor’s reign
July 23 – John Textor does not give up easily. After building the Eagle Holdings multi-owner club group that included Olympique Lyonnais, Botafogo, and Belgium’s RWD Molenbeek, he lost the lot as his financial house of cards built on unsustainable loans eventually collapsed on him.
In an effort to save both money and reputation, Textor filed a $400 million lawsuit against Michele Kang in Florida, owner of the NWSL side Washington Spirit and a majority stake in the WSL side London City Lionesses.
Kang, who took over the chairmanship of Lyon in Textor in 2023 (immediately after buying 52% of the women’s group in Textor), bought a controlling stake of 87.78% in Lyon for 30 million dollars in June 2026, with a further commitment to invest up to 81 million dollars for financial restructuring in the next two years. This deal removed the club from the Textor’s Eagle team.
Textor’s indictment has seven counts, including defamation, forgery, and conspiracy.
He alleges that Kang used their business friendship to trick him into giving him control of the club at the same time he had a secret side deal with private equity firm Ares Management Corp that loaned the Eagles more than $547 million — a figure that included interest and penalties as Textor repeatedly failed to meet loan deadlines.
Textor says the side deal with Ares saw the creation of a “shadow board” whose purpose was to push Eagle Football Holdings into bankruptcy, so Kang and other investors could acquire Lyon at a discount. Last March Eagle Football Holdings went into administration in the UK.
Textor also revealed that he was “targeted” by French football regulator DNCG. DNCG relegated Lyon to France’s second division in 2024 due to financial irregularities and debts of around €175 million.
Textor said he was told the regulator would “look good” in Lyon if he stepped down as president and CEO. Textor said he wouldn’t have done that if he knew about the side deal between Kang and Ares. The DCNG overturned the downgrade decision.
In June 2025, DCNG temporarily returned to Lyon in Ligue 2 after an audit, but the decision was overturned in July 2025, after the reintroduction of the financial system by Kang.
In another legal wrinkle, Lyon announced in June that it had filed a legal complaint with the Lyon prosecutor against ‘X’, an unidentified defendant. This follows an internal audit of the group’s operations between May 2023 and June 2025 when it was under the control of John Textor, and cited the alleged misuse of business assets, incorrect accounts and misleading market information. The complaint reportedly describes hundreds of suspicious transactions.
Lyon’s internal audit concluded that there had been “deliberate mismanagement of the company’s activities, and lack of transparency in financial management… a cash flow of several hundred million euros that appears to have been made without economic reasons.”
In a statement sent by Front Office Sports regarding Textor’s case, Kang’s spokesperson said: “The allegations are baseless and baseless, and this complaint represents the latest attempt by John Textor to divert attention from his wrongdoing. Michele Kang remains focused on the long-term success and recovery of Olympique Lyonnais, and will respond through the appropriate legal channels.”
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