Crystal Palace: Group including Jimmy Butler expected to make offer for stake in Premier League club
A consortium of sport and entertainment executives, which includes the NBA star Jimmy Butler, is expected to make an offer in excess of $200million to purchase Eagle Football's 43 per cent stake in Premier League soccer club Crystal Palace, sources briefed on the proposed deal have told The Athletic.
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The group is led by former Morgan Stanley sports executive Bejan Esmaili and former Roc Nation attorney Wajid Mir, with the pair having previously agreed in January a period of exclusivity with John Textor — the largest shareholder in Eagle Football and one of Palace's four primary owners — which they allowed to lapse.
The Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd had formed part of that consortium but instead chose to join the ownership group of fellow Premier League side Everton in April. Now Butler, a six-time NBA all-star who has been with the Golden State Warriors since February, has become part of the wider group. Eagle and Butler, via his representatives, have been approached for comment.
Previously backed by two Saudi Arabian businessmen, Haider and Mansoor Syed, the original group opted to allow its 30-day period of exclusivity to end and instead sought alternative funding. The new consortium, sources added, is backed by an American group which has experience investing in soccer clubs.
Should the group's expected offer be accepted, it would value Palace — which won the English FA Cup, the world's oldest soccer cup competition, for the first time in May — as a whole in excess of $465million (£343m). Other recent investments in Premier League clubs include Sir Jim Racliffe's purchase of a 28.9 per cent stake in Manchester United for $1.6bn in December 2023, the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover of Chelsea for $3.02bn in May 2022 and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF)-backed takeover of Newcastle United for £305m in October 2021.
Sources also added that Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets, has also made an offer for Eagle's shares but has yet to meet Textor's valuation. The Athletic has approached Johnson for comment, via the Jets.
Sportsbank, a sports investment group advised by the former Everton director and experienced football financier Keith Harris, was granted exclusivity to invest in Eagle in January, but that exclusivity also lapsed and it no longer has an active offer, although remains interested in investing should Eagle complete its initial public offering (IPO).
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The expected offer from the new U.S. consortium comes amid concerns over Palace's eligibility to compete in next season's Europa League despite qualifying as FA Cup winners, due to Eagle's ownership of French side Lyon, where it holds a majority stake, putting them potentially at odds with UEFA's rules around multi-club ownership.
Textor had hoped fellow Palace co-owners Josh Harris, who owns the NFL's Washington Commanders, and David Blitzer, the two American businessmen who together make up the other general partners alongside chairman Steve Parish, would purchase Eagle's shares but no deal has been agreed. They have the right of first offer to buy Eagle's stake in the south London soccer club and have been approached by Textor, but according to sources familiar with the situation, their proposal fell short of being accepted.
Textor believes it would be the easiest way to remove doubt over Palace's Europa League participation.
Textor, the fourth general partner at Palace as a representative of Eagle, is the chairman of the group but after more than a year shifting between being open to selling Eagle's stake and seeking to buy a majority, appears to have settled on selling, especially with Palace's place in Europe in question.
UEFA's rules restrict teams from multi-club groups playing in the same competition. While there may still be ways around this, the deadline set by European football's governing body to address any multi-club ownership issues passed on March 1 — the day Palace beat Millwall in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Lyon qualified for the same competition through their league standing and due to finishing higher than Palace in their respective league, they have precedence to be admitted to the competition.
All four of Palace's general partners met with UEFA in Nyon, Switzerland, last week to present their case that Textor does not have control or influence at Palace. There is some confidence that they would be able to convey a lack of decisive influence but the decision on whether to admit Palace to Europe remains in the balance before it is communicated to the club, which is expected later this month.
The U.S. consortium is expected to now come back to the table. Should it make the offer and it be accepted by Eagle, as their previous offer was in December, then the deal will be subject to Premier League approval.
It remains to be seen whether UEFA would be satisfied by a binding agreement for Eagle to sell its stake, or whether any deal can reach that stage before the committee makes its decision.
Should the consortium be successful in buying out Eagle, it may subsequently look to carry out a full takeover of Palace in due course in order to have full decision-making power.
In May last year, Textor told The Athletic that he was actively looking to sell Eagle's stake in Palace and he had hired investment banking firm Raine to find a suitable investor to purchase the group's share in the club.
'We've reached the point where we have a significant investment in a club we hold in the minority (in Palace),' he said. 'We're having extreme success in Brazil and early on in France, (and) to not have that same level of integration with our partner in the UK… it just becomes more and more clear that that level of collaboration we want and need works.'
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Eagle Football 'is simply not a perfect fit for Crystal Palace,' he added.
Textor originally purchased 40 per cent of Palace in 2021 for £87.5m (now $114m), helping to fund a successful transfer window and complete the redevelopment of the academy, before increasing that stake by around five per cent with an additional £30m. Further investment has come from capital calls.
There have been failed attempts by Textor to purchase a controlling stake in the club, which is also owned by fellow general partners Parish, Harris and Blitzer, who each have 25 per cent of the voting rights.
Over the past four years, Textor has struggled to make headway into purchasing a controlling stake and disagreed with Parish over the direction of the club, in particular with his multi-club model which includes controlling stakes in Lyon, Brazilian top-flight club Botafogo and Belgian club RWD Molenbeek, which he recently renamed Daring Brussels.
Now, he appears to have accepted it is time to sell up at Palace.
Additional reporting: Anthony Slater
(Top photo of Crystal Palace players celebrating their FA Cup win in May:)
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