Lyon’s sporting crisis is now coupled with an open war between the club’s new owner, the American John Textor and its former historic boss, Jean-Michel Aulas, with accusations of deception by one, a defamation complaint on the other accompanied by a precautionary seizure.

Since the beginning of the summer, Textor and Aulas, brutally ousted in May from the management of the club, have been torn apart by the media interposed on the financial situation of Olympique Lyonnais.

The situation has escalated to the point that the company Holnest, controlled by Jean-Michel Aulas, announced in a press release on Wednesday that it had initiated “several legal actions to preserve its rights in the face of the repeated breaches of John Textor and Eagle Football.” This press release notably announces a defamation complaint for remarks made by the American businessman on Tuesday.

The latter accused Aulas of having “hidden” the real financial situation of the club at the time of the sale. “There was an erroneous assessment of OL’s real financial situation when the transaction was completed last December,” he said during a videoconference in English organized for some media.

“He hid bad news,” he accused, citing the risks associated with the rules of the DNCG, the financial control body for French football. Holnest “contested these allegations in the strongest possible terms,” detailing the exchanges between the two parties at the time of the assignment.

“With these remarks, John Textor and Eagle Football are seeking – as they have been doing for more than a year – to evade the commitments to which they are nevertheless contractually bound towards Holnest”, accused the JMA holding company. Holnest also initiated proceedings before the Lyon commercial court and obtained a precautionary seizure of 14.5 million euros on the club’s accounts.

With this precautionary seizure procedure, Jean-Michel Aulas “succeeded in having all our accounts blocked for a short week in the middle of the transfer window. To defend his personal interests, he put the whole club at risk”, regretted Santiago Cucci, executive president of OL, in an interview with AFP. “But the life of the club goes on, OL are solvent. He was just greatly disturbed for five to six days,” he said.

Aulas told AFP that at the request of Textor he had reduced his request to the seizure of the only account at the Arkema bank, “we agreed to unblock all the other accounts”. In addition, Cucci “says that they could not carry out an operation in the middle of the transfer window, it is false, every day they announce new players, and I am happy about it”, added the president of the club. OL for 36 years.

Initially appointed executive chairman for three years at the time of the sale of his club to the Eagle Football group, then dismissed from his post on May 5, Jean-Michel Aulas remains a minority shareholder of OL at 8.7%, through his company Holnest.

The sale agreement provides for Eagle Football to buy back its shares, a third of these shares was scheduled for August 10, Aulas explained, specifying that the other two thirds were to be sold on December 31, 2024.

It is to protect against a failure to pay this debt that a protective attachment of 14.5 million (for the first third) was requested and obtained. OL tried to have this seizure canceled but the commercial court rejected its request, considering that “the debt is real and that Holnest’s request is founded”, according to an interim order from the commercial court whose AFP had a copy.

The judgment invokes in particular “many uncertainties about the situation of the group (Eagle) which are circumstances likely to threaten the recovery of the debt of the company Holnest”.

The fact remains that the team, in sporting difficulty, is limited in its recruitment by the measures to control the wage bill and the transfer allowances taken in June by the DNCG, the financial policeman of French football and confirmed on appeal. Lyon must go back to the club finance control body in October or November to reassess its situation.

After three days of the championship and before the reception of PSG on Sunday evening, Olympique Lyonnais occupies 17th and penultimate place in Ligue 1 with one point.