Olympique Lyonnais harshly sanctioned by French football financial police

The National Management Control Directorate (DNCG) has not been kind to Olympique Lyonnais (OL), whose accounts are in the red. The French football financial police punished the Rhône club for its debt by forcing it, on Friday, November 15, to control its payroll and prohibit hiring during the winter transfer market.

The DNCG, which had interviewed OL officials earlier in the afternoon, also decided “Conservative demotion at the end of the current sports season” of the current 5^my of Ligue 1, according to a press release from the Professional Football League (LFP).

However, the American John Textor, owner of the club, had assured that he was not “Not at all concerned about sustainability” of the company that oversees the Olympique Lyonnais. “In the coming months we will enter several hundred million cash”he assured on Friday, according to statements sent to Agence France-Presse.

“I trust our numbers”

The businessman, who bought OL from Jean-Michel Aulas in 2023, assured that the LFP body had looked “the whole picture” from parent company Eagle Football Holdings, which also owns the clubs Botafogo in Brazil and Molenbeek in Belgium.

Last week, its French subsidiary published results accounts that put its followers in doubt: despite a reduction in its net losses, the Eagle Football Group’s cash debt remains at 463.8 million euros.

To settle them, the company turns to cash inflows, particularly from Botafogo and Molenbeek, but auditors believe they do not have enough information to judge the nature ” reasonable “ of these hypotheses.

To reassure OL fans, Textor clarified that the club will not give up its best players, remembering that the goal of the season is to compete in the next Champions League.

“I trust our figures, but never in how a regulatory body sees things”However, it escaped the American, evoking “pressures” his “enemies” of which “a great club linked to Qatar” ; understand Paris Saint-Germain.

In July 2023, the DNCG had already taken measures to control payrolls and transfer compensation. This situation had forced the Rhône club to undertake a summer recruitment, carried out at a low price and, in the end, unsuccessful.