John Textor, the former majority shareholder of Crystal Palace, has suffered a legal setback after the UK Commercial Court ruled that he has a case to answer in a $97m (£72m) claim from Iconic Sports, an investor in his multi-club group Eagle Football. The dispute centres on Iconic's $75m purchase of a 15.7% stake in Eagle three years ago, which included a contractual obligation for Textor to buy back the stake if Eagle was not floated on the stock exchange, plus 11% annual interest.
Iconic brought the legal action in July, alleging that Textor failed to honour the buyback agreement. Textor countersued in the United States, claiming he was misled, but the Florida district court dismissed that motion, ruling that the case should be heard in the UK. In a preliminary ruling, Judge Pelling KC sided with Iconic, stating that the contractual terms were clear.
Textor has confirmed his intention to appeal the decision, expressing disappointment that the case was not dismissed at the outset. A spokesperson for Iconic Sports said the ruling 'confirms unequivocally that John Textor knowingly violated contractual commitments' and that Iconic intends to recover the funds owed.
Since selling his 43% stake in Crystal Palace to Woody Johnson in July, Textor has faced a difficult period. Eagle's majority-owned club Lyon was relegated to Ligue 2 for financial breaches before being reinstated, and Textor resigned from the Lyon board. He has also held talks about buying Sheffield Wednesday from Dejphon Chansiri, but no deal has been reached, and his source of funding remains unclear.
