crystal palace co-owner outlines Everton takeover intentions

John Textor has cryptically reference a key date for Everton as he suspects his final offer to obtain a controlling stake at Crystal Palace will be knocked back

Potential Owner of Everton John Textor has disclosed that he submitted one last attempt to acquire Crystal Palace; nevertheless, if his offer is turned down, as he expects, it will create an opportunity for a potential partnership with Farhad Moshiri.

Textor has yet to receive a response to his bid for Palace, in which he now has a 45% share. Because the American believes the offer will be rejected, he may proceed with his attempts to try to acquire the Blues.

Although the club has not yet confirmed it, David Ornstein of The Athletic claimed on August 15 that Textor had become the fifth interested party in the past two years to enter into a period of exclusivity with Moshiri regarding acquiring his 94.1% holding in Everton.

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Then, on August 21, The Guardian published a piece stating that he had additional discussions with Moshiri and that by the end of this week, an agreement over a Textor Everton purchase was anticipated.

Textor has now attempted to elucidate his stance on behalf of his Eagle Football team in a lengthy statement posted on his personal website.

“We feel compelled to clarify our intentions as current owners of Crystal Palace Football Club, for the benefit of its community, and for the benefit of the Everton community which may be affected by these reports,” he said, in reference to recent reports that, while we believe may be well-intentioned, are still inaccurate or imprecise.

“We can formally state that we are interested in selling our stake in Crystal Palace, primarily in order to further our ties to the Everton team and surrounding area. We contacted Raine Group a few months ago to start the process of analyzing our options because, at the time, we were debating between two extremely different options: either buying the majority of Palace or selling it altogether.

The 58-year-old also mentioned the date of Everton’s 3-2 comeback victory over Crystala Palace to earn their Premier League status. His portfolio of international football teams also includes Botafogo (Brazil), RWD Molenbeek (Belgium), and Olympique Lyonnais (France).” He continued, “We have no expectation of immediate acceptance as we show up in a new town, with Palace gear stored in our trunks, and memories that we will cherish forever (though May 19, 2022 will just have to be one of those memories that now can go both ways!).”

“With supporters, trust takes time to build, but I do think we are uniquely suited to serve and produce outcomes, and I think it’s quite probable that I will be calling a new club and town “my club” at some point in the near future. Time will tell.

Prior to the exclusivity allegations made last week, Steve Parish, the chairman of Crystal Palace, stated that he and the other executives of Selhurst Park agreed with Textor’s intention to work on a new project.

The big obstacle involving his existing 45% shareholding with their south London Premier League rivals, however, is said to have caused some trepidation within Goodison Park’s power corridors regarding the likelihood of a speedy settlement.

Parish said to BBC Sport: “John has a multi-club setup, and it makes it more difficult for him to do the things that he wants to do because of his minority position at Crystal Palace.”

In my opinion, John is doing as well as anyone in that multi-club scenario, and he has many advantages.

In my opinion, John is doing as well as anyone in that multi-club scenario, and he has many advantages.

“He desires a club where he can plug in and be in complete control of everything that occurs. As a club, we don’t believe that is appropriate at this time.

“When we can, we work together with his clubs. We are assisting him in pursuing his desire to go and do something else.

Like all of us, John has contributed financially to the club. We’ve all contributed our fair share, and we all agree on the plan of action.

“We’re thrilled to support John in realizing his goals. Last night, when he was on his way to Brazil, I was emailing him. We’ll make an effort to replace him with the appropriate individuals.

Together, Josh Harris, David Blitzer, and I have a 55% friendship rating with some pals. For the club, things are in a really stable and cordial state. We’ll try our hardest to put John in the position we want him in and work to wish him well.

We feel compelled to clarify our intentions as the current owners of Crystal Palace Football Club, for the benefit of its community and the Everton community which may be impacted by these reports, in light of recent reports that, while we believe to be well-intentioned, are still inaccurate or imprecise.

We would like to clarify that we would like to divest our ownership of Crystal Palace, primarily in order to establish a closer link with the Everton team and community. We were exploring two quite different options at the time: either buying a majority stake in Palace or selling it altogether. A few months ago, we recruited Raine Group to start the process of analyzing alternatives.

It had always been my intention to acquire a majority stake in the club, going back to our initial 40% purchase at the start of our involvement in 2021. At that time, I was urged to purchase a majority shareholding, and I have frequently regretted not doing so in the past. With large investments made in the spring of 2023 and again in the summer of 2024, we have remained the club’s principal backer. We still have the largest shareholder position in the club despite having been able to expand our percentage ownership; however, we have not yet acquired a majority shareholding. The club is still run in the same manner as it was in 2021. There are four of us.

We are still proud of the things we have done for the Crystal Palace club and the community even as we look forward to our next journey. Our funds and everyday efforts enabled the team to pay off debt accumulated during COVID, reach important Academy improvement milestones, lower the squad’s average age, and sign several of the most influential players of today. We even contributed to the establishment and development of our outstanding new coach’s relationship. To put it briefly, we are proud of Crystal Palace as an example of the great impact we can have on a football club and community, even though we do not enjoy the same degree of collaboration as we do with our other Eagle Football clubs.

I can only conclude that, given that we are now being asked to clarify our position on ownership retention and our consideration of both “buy” and “sell” scenarios, the decision has been as perplexing for us as it must be for the fans to sort through the scant and misleading press coverage. It’s emotional, which makes it complicated. Is there anyone who wouldn’t love Palace? As a private investor, I just had my wife and children as partners when I first appeared in 2021. As a family, we went to both home and away games. We saw some fantastic victories slip away at the last minute and had some fantastic victories against some formidable opponents.and during the process, despite the fact that I couldn’t go out to bars with my followers, as much as my two lads did, I always enjoyed hearing about their “away days”—such as the time they almost got pushed off a bridge for wearing Palace colors away against Forest, only to be hauled up by the neck by three older Palace supporters. As Palace supporters, we have relished every second of it.

And even before our multi-club collaboration model took shape and we began forming connections with other communities, we were already taking great pleasure in our substantial contribution to a partnership that functioned effectively enough to oversee notable advancements and elevated goals. Thus, what began as a “quite interesting retirement activity” developed into a fierce love for a club and a neighborhood that my family (and eventually my new partners) came to