Lyon’s American owner John Textor was highly critical of Nasser Al Khelaifi, the Paris Saint-Germain president, and Vincent Labrune, the head of Ligue 1, in an interview for French radio RMC on Monday.
Amongst other barbs about Al Khelaifi’s position, Textor called Labrune PSG’s “lapdog” to highlight the relationship between Labrune and Al Khelaifi, who is also in charge of the BeIn Sport media group.
Textor, who is also the majority shareholder of Crystal Palace, Botafogo and Molenbeek, considers the links between the two men unacceptable because of the conflict of interest it creates.
“I wasn’t aware of the protection that comes institutionally. I was not really focused on the dominance of this one man [Al Khelaifi] on the European club association, on the executive committee of UEFA” Textor told former PSG and France midfielder Jerome Rothen who host in own radio show on RMC.
“I was completely shocked in July to be in the meeting of the presidents [of Ligue 1] to discuss viable alternatives on the TV rights deal and the president of the league [Labrune] who should’ve been running the meeting barely opened his mouth. And Nasser sat there and ran the meeting and should not have even been in the meeting because he is an interested party with his own TV channels,” Textor went on to say.
“And every time anybody would raise an alternate idea, Nasser would bark at them and intimidate and bully. And the president of our league just sat there like a lapdog, didn’t say anything.”
ESPN received a statement from PSG later on Monday, dismissing Textor’s comments and defending both the club and Ligue 1.
“It’s a shame that you can’t buy class and elegance as it would have enabled M. Textor to avoid ridiculing himself through his rude and dense excessiveness towards our President, our institution and our fans,” the club said. “He better come back to earth, and to France, too, to comprehend this league that we love so much.”
The feud between Textor and Al Khelaifi has been going on since the summer. They have never seen eye to eye and since he bought Lyon in June of 2022 and highlighted the conflict of interest resulting from Al Khelaifi’s position as the head of BeIn Sport.
“So no I wasn’t aware that the league was so incredibly dominated by this man [Al Khelaifi],” Textor said. “I was not aware, I think of the influence from PSG on the league and even on the DNCG [the French FFP regulator].”
Ligue 1 also issued a statement on Monday responding to the comments from Textor, which read in part: “We were surprise to see John Textor’s comments. We are even more amazed of the words used by John Textor as [we] had a very cordial discussion this afternoon.”
PSG beat Lyon 2-1 in the French Cup final in 2024 in what was Kylian Mbappé’s last game for the Parisien club before moving to Real Madrid.
