Global sports giant makes £230m bid to buy Crystal Palace owner John Textor out of club with American wanting quick deal

JOHN TEXTOR is in talks to sell his Crystal Palace stake for £230million.

A global sports investment group are understood to have made an offer for the American businessman’s 45 per cent share.

The offer would value the Selhurst Park club at £500million.

Textor, 59, had instructed merchant bank Raine Group to identify interested parties for his stake at the South London club.

And Sportsbank are one of three serious bidders for Textor’s shares, which he bought for £87.5m in 2021.

The group are made up of a collection of investors from North America, Canada, Europe and the Persian Gulf.

On Companies House, persons with significant control of Sportsbank are listed as Zechariah Janjua and Navshir Jaffer – who are actually Palace fans.

But although Sportsbank are the leading contenders, they are one of three serious interested parties.

Textor’s Eagle Football Group made one final bid to take over Palace in full in August, but they did not receive a response.

The American business tycoon’s relationship with co-owner Steve Parish has become seriously fractured, with fans calling for him to leave the club.

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It remains to be seen whether Palace’s other three general partners — chairman Parish and fellow U.S. businessmen Josh Harris and David Blitzer – are prepared to sell their own stakes.

Harris and Blitzer, who are both 18 per cent shareholders, could in theory decide to match Sportsbank’s bid but have no automatic right to.

The ownership has a general partnership structure where different investors run the business together.

Robert Franco is also a person with “significant interest” in the Eagles as he owns around five per cent of the club. 

Eagle Football Group also own other clubs around the world, including French side Lyon, Brazilian league competitors Botafogo, Belgian club RWD Molenbeek and FC Florida in the U.S. 

Textor first announced his plans to sell his stake in Palace amid an interest in buying Everton in May, which has since fallen through.

The Friedkin Group have reached an agreement in principle to buy Farhad Moshiri’s majority 94 per cent stake at Goodison Park instead.

Textor is a digital entrepreneur who made his name in virtual reality studios and the streaming platform FuboTV.

Meanwhile, Palace, who sit 17th in the table, won their first Prem game of the season after beating Spurs 1-0 on Sunday.

Oliver Glasner’s side then backed it up with a solid 2-1 win over Aston Villa to set up a Carabao Cup quarter-final clash at Arsenal on December 17.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk