John Textor’s Eagle Football Group has made a final bid to take over Crystal Palace.
The group fronted by the U.S. businessman, which owns an existing 45 per cent stake in Palace, launched an offer which they say placed a valuation on the club “that far exceeds levels of prior investment” and would see them take full control.
It remains to be seen whether Palace’s other three General Partners — chairman Steve Parish and fellow U.S. businessmen Josh Harris and David Blitzer — are prepared to sell their stakes, but Textor fears they will knock back his offer.
If he is indeed unsuccessful then he is expected to renew efforts to sell his own stake in Palace — he has engaged investment banking firm Raine Group to actively seek a buyer for Eagle Football’s stake — and concentrate on acquiring fellow Premier League side Everton, with whom he has entered a period of exclusivity after talks with their majority owner Farhad Moshiri.
A statement from Textor read: “It is true that we recently made an offer to buy the remaining shares of Crystal Palace, at a valuation that far exceeds levels of prior investment. We have a strong belief that Palace has become a much more valuable club since 2021 and we respect our partners enough to offer fair value, regardless of circumstances.
“It is also true that our offer has yet to induce a response, and we believe that our Palace partners have the same desire to remain in ownership as we do. So our Raine Group efforts to sell our interests have resumed.”
Textor declined to comment on the value of the offer he had made for Palace.
He confirmed his engagement of Raine Group in an interview with The Athletic in May after concluding that Eagle Football “is simply not a perfect fit for Crystal Palace”, with his multi-club model not welcomed at the club.
But despite a previously unsuccessful attempt to purchase a controlling stake in Palace, he has now made a final open offer to buy out Parish, Harris and Blitzer alongside a significant number of smaller shareholders who own less than five per cent each.
Textor confirmed in May that it was “our intention to file to be a publicly listed company soon”. That is expected later this year, and Eagle will need to be a majority shareholder with control over decisions to make it work favourably, meaning time is of the essence to take a controlling stake.
If he is to successfully complete a takeover of Everton instead, he must first sell his Palace shares. “We have a significant number of parties active in our process,” added the statement. “We have received strong indications from qualified buyers and we believe strongly that we can complete a sale of our interests to continue moving forward with the next community we hope to serve, embrace and enjoy.”
Parish has been in charge of Palace since buying the club out of administration in 2010 alongside three others as part of the CPFC2010 consortium. Since then he has overseen promotion to the Premier League in 2013 and an unprecedented run of success in which the club has enjoyed an unbroken decade in the top flight.
He has also become an influential figure within the Premier League, often acting as an unofficial spokesperson for clubs outside the ‘big six’.
In 2015, Harris and Blitzer each purchased an 18 per cent stake in the club to join Parish. Six years later, Textor became the fourth general partner when he took a 40 per cent stake after investing £87.5m. He injected a further £30m ($38.5m) into the club last year to increase his shareholding by a further five per cent, diluting the other shareholdings significantly as a result.
Parish has been in charge of Palace since 2010 (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
This offer is the result of increased tensions within Palace’s ownership group, which has become split over the club’s strategy. Parish has prioritised infrastructure spending with his focus on the redevelopment of Selhurst Park and the building of the club’s new academy, while Textor would prefer to pursue further investment in the playing squad.
With Parish effectively the sole decision maker at the club, Textor has grown frustrated over his lack of control, and he previously hinted at being forced into a decision either to launch an offer to take over the club or sell his stake.
“We have a spiritual divide on the merits of multi-club collaboration versus single-club governance,” he told The Athletic in July last year. “But there’s no amount of fighting with him that’s going to benefit that discussion, so we don’t fight.
“The likelihood of me being a passive investor for a length of time? If you knew me, you’d know that’s not a long-term strategy.
“Either we’re invited to take greater leadership over time or we’ll want to deploy our capital elsewhere. Because we think it’s important to have a UK partner that is as collaborative with our other clubs as they are today.”
Eagle Football also owns Brazilian first division side Botafogo, Belgian top-flight side RWD Molenbeek and Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais.
Palace’s decision to vote for a moratorium on player loans between clubs with the same owners at a Premier League meeting in November — a proposal that was ultimately rejected — also angered Textor.
(Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images)
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