New York Jets proprietor Woody Johnson has agreed on a £190 million deal ($254m) to purchase a 43% stake in Premier League group Crystal Palace from American businessman John Textor, the membership introduced Monday.
The settlement is topic to Premier League approval and Johnson — a former United States ambassador to the UK — passing the league’s House owners and Administrators’ Take a look at, in any other case recognized on the Match and Correct Individuals Take a look at.
“While the completion is pending approval from the Premier League and Girls’s Tremendous League, we don’t envisage any points and sit up for welcoming Woody as a companion and director of the membership,” Palace added in a press release.
“We wish to go on file to thank John Textor for his contribution over the previous 4 years and need him each success for the long run.”
Ought to Johnson’s settlement with Textor be accredited by the Premier League, it will pave the best way for Palace, the 2024-25 FA Cup winners, to play in subsequent season’s UEFA Europa League and finish the prospect of the membership breaching multiclub possession guidelines resulting from Textor’s Eagle Soccer Holdings Group additionally having a controlling stake in French membership Lyon.
Palace have but to be cleared to play within the Europa League resulting from ongoing negotiations between the membership and UEFA.
ESPN has contacted UEFA for remark.
Though Textor has no day-to-day involvement within the operating of Palace, who’re managed by chairman Steve Parish and U.S. buyers Josh Harris and David Blitzer, UEFA guidelines forestall two groups with the identical possession taking part in in the identical competitors except shares in a single membership are positioned right into a blind belief.
Textor failed to position his Palace or Lyon shares in such a automobile by the UEFA deadline of March 1 — greater than two months earlier than Palace secured Europa League qualification by successful the FA Cup.
Nevertheless, as reported by ESPN earlier this month, Textor has been making an attempt to dump his Palace shares, with Johnson rising because the main candidate to purchase his stake.
Johnson, 78, served because the U.S. ambassador to the U.Okay. from 2017 to 2021 and made a failed bid to purchase Chelsea after the earlier proprietor, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, was sanctioned by the U.Okay. authorities in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Johnson has beforehand declared himself to be a Chelsea supporter.