‘A subjective panel of volunteer business people’ – John Textor renews criticism of the DNCG

Former Lyon president John Textor has criticized the DNCG – Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion, French football’s financial watchdog – in a statement released on his website. Not for the first time, the American businessman, who has been ousted from his position as Lyon boss, has questioned the DNCG’s decisions as well as the powers at its disposal.

In an interview with L’Equipe, DNCG president Jean-Marc Mickeler has praised how the organisation’s decisions proved the “jolt that ultimately allowed OL to remain in Ligue 1.” The DNCG initially opted not to overturn the administrative Ligue 2 reflection they previously inflicted on Lyon. This prompted Les Gones to implement wholesale organizational changes with Textor now out of the picture and Michele Kang now in charge.

Textor believes that a change in leadership at Lyon was the DNCG’s hidden agenda. “I never imagined that the DNCG would depart so materially from accepted principles of “going concern” and sustainability analysis, to render one of the most punitive opinions on the community of Lyon, largely (I believe) to serve the protectionist interests of individuals and force a change in leadership at our club.“

Textor also belittles the DNCG as “a subjective panel of volunteer business people” headed by Mickeler who, according to Textor, “justifies the relegation of a club and its community, based on his personal feeling of ‘trust’.“

GFFN | Bastien Cheval