John Textor denies he has ever had ‘decisive influence’ at Crystal Palace with club’s Europa League spot hanging in the balance | OneFootball

The departing Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor claims that UEFA has seen documents that show he had no decisive influence in making decisions at the club.

Textor has agreed to sell his shares in the club to fellow US businessman Woody Johnson, with the Eagles facing possible expulsion from the Europa League, due to Textor’s majority stake in French outfit Lyon who are also in the competition.

Lyon had been ordered down to Ligue 2 because of their financial problems and said they would not compete in the Europa League should they be relegated.

But they were successful in their appeal, meaning that Palace could be relegated to the Conference League as a result of breaching UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.

Speaking to TalkSport, Textor said: “I’m dumb and successful enough to not predict in advance what a governing body will say.

“At times, I’ve been so confident at how we would come out of hearings with the DNCG or UEFA. Never try and predict what they are going to do, I think it’s insulting to them.”

Textor and Palace missed UEFA’s deadline to give up his interest in the club, but he denies that he had a “decisive influence” in the club in the first place.

He added: “Why should I have put my interest in a trust when I didn’t have any decisive influence.

“If I had decisive influence, then those Brazilian players that just beat PSG at the Club World Cup, half of them would be coming to Crystal Palace next year. But you don’t see one single player from our network of clubs that has made their way onto the Palace roster.”

When asked about his tenure at Crystal Palace, Textor replied: “I helped a lot, I showed up during COVID and paid off COVID debt and helped finish the academy.

“[Steve] Parish is making the decisions and bringing us players; he involves us, but he doesn’t really listen to us. A suggestion from time to time is not the same as decisive influence.”

Following Lyon’s successful appeal, UEFA will have to decide whether Textor does have a conflict of interest, but the Missouri-born entrepreneur claims that they have been presented previously with documents that prove his innocence.

“The reasons are in documents that the public hasn’t seen,” he claimed. “Number one, we shouldn’t talk about whether or not I have 43% vote or whether I have a 25% vote, we should talk about zero.

“Because the document that I signed, when I signed on to the shares, says clearly, I’m not entitled to have any role in management decisions.

“UEFA have seen that document and I’ve sat there in the room and said ‘okay, stop talking about the 25% and using that argument because it’s below the UEFA threshold of 30%.'”

Should Crystal Palace be banned from the Europa League, the club would likely appeal before a final decision is made.