Newly revealed figures from L’Équipe suggest Olympique Lyonnais paid the salaries of 54 players last season, despite maintaining a first-team squad of just over 30 — a discrepancy now fuelling fresh suspicions of deeper financial irregularities within the John Textor era.
As the club prepares for a decisive appeal hearing in front of French football’s financial watchdog, the DNCG, this Thursday, further alarming details have emerged. According to L’Équipe, Lyon allegedly spent €91 million on three players — Igor Jesus, Jair and Luiz Henrique — who never donned the club’s shirt. Instead, the trio contributed to the sporting project of Botafogo, Textor’s Brazilian club in the Eagle Football multi-club network.
The French daily paper alledges that the financial burden of Botafogo’s recent Copa Libertadores and Campeonato Brasileiro campaigns may have been unfairly shouldered by Lyon through a combination of opaque accounting practices and what appears to be strategic factoring of assets between the clubs. Botafogo, for its part, has yet to present its 2024 financial accounts.
Textor resigned following Lyon’s provisional relegation to Ligue 2 by the DNCG on 24th June, is now out of the decision-making structure but remains a shareholder. In his place, Michele Kang (President) and Michael Gerlinger (General Director) have taken over and are operating from Paris in a last-ditch effort to salvage Lyon’s Ligue 1 status.
Tezz | George Boxall
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