‘We’ve done very well on the numbers’ – John Textor confident following Lyon’s latest meeting with the DNCG

In an interview with RMC Sport, following Lyon’s latest meeting with the DNCG, John Textor expressed his confidence in how the meeting went and spoke about the improvements that the restrictions placed on the club by the financial authority have initiated. 

Textor was heard in front of the DNCG to inform France’s football financial authority of the latest accounts at Lyon and what they predicted in the next fiscal quarter. These meetings are part of the monitoring that Les Gones have been placed under due to previous financial irregularities. Monitoring of the club’s finances during the summer transfer window restricted the transfer dealings that the 7-time Ligue 1 winners could conduct. 

When asked about his latest reunion with the DNCG and if he was confident about how the meeting went, the American businessman said “Obviously, we’ve done very well on the numbers. We indicated the first quarter of the next fiscal year to be quite successful. Everybody knows what we did on player sales. We communicated the strength of the financing of all the debt… Credit agencies think that the health of the business is going in the right direction.”

John Textor also commented on the process of working with the DNCG and what it has forced the Rhône club to do, “You think you get to buy a club and show up and get to do what you want, and normally that’s true but with the DNCG turned our hand into making certain decisions which ended up being pretty good for the club. We got some sales done and I do think the players that we brought in are at the same level as the players we sold if not better. So, maybe some tough love in the last hearing was a good thing for us.”

A restriction-free January transfer window?

Before the meeting, L’Équipe reported about Lyon’s confidence and that they were already planning a €50m transfer spend in the January transfer window. RMC asked the Eagle Football Group owner about his plans for Lyon in the January transfer window and if they can sign players to which he responded, “It’s really up to them (the DNCG). Of course, the transfer cap that is put on a team is there for the entire year and it’s pretty unusual for them to say, well we’re going to lift that, but obviously, that’s what we’ve asked to do. We would like to spend smartly but significantly in the window.”

GFFN | Liam Wraith