Eagle Football Group Press Release

Prepared 24 June 2026

  Sources: Eagle Football Group S.A. press release | Cork Gully LLP Statement of Proposals | Bloomberg | Reuters | theesk.org

Summary

Analysis of the current status of Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited’s administration, with particular focus on the 23 June 2026 sale of Eagle Bidco’s stake in Eagle Football Group (parent of Olympique Lyonnais) to Michele Kang, the resulting position of Ares Capital Corporation as principal secured creditor, and the implications for Botafogo and intercompany receivables within the Bidco group. 

The press release issued by Eagle Football Group S.A. has been analysed in full; all other findings are drawn from primary sources (Companies House filings, AMF disclosures) and verified secondary reporting, with analyst-derived figures clearly flagged.

On 23 June 2026, Eagle Football Group S.A. (formerly Olympique Lyonnais Groupe, Euronext Paris: EFG.PA) announced that, following a competitive sale process run by Cork Gully LLP as administrators of Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited, agreements had been signed for Michele Kang to acquire Eagle Bidco’s entire 87.78% stake in EFG for US$ 30,000,000.

This is a fraction of the group’s outstanding debt, which stood at €616.3 million as of 31 December. 

The transaction is structured around three elements: the share acquisition itself; a €71,000,000 financing commitment from Kang’s vehicle to stabilise the OL Group; and the release of approximately €232.6 million of subordinated intra-group debt pursuant to an English-law intercreditor agreement.

This transaction confirms a substantial loss for Ares Capital Corporation, the secured creditor whose floating charge triggered Cork Gully’s appointment on 27 March 2026, and whose claim against Eagle Bidco stands at US$547,372,900 according to the administrators’ own Statement of Proposals filed at Companies House. 

The release of intercompany liabilities owed by the OL Group to other Eagle Football affiliates has direct and significant implications for Botafogo’s outstanding claim against Olympique Lyonnais, which this report analyses in detail below.

Headline finding: the US$ 30,000,000 sale price for Eagle Bidco’s stake in EFG, set against Ares’s US$547.4 million Companies House claim, implies a deeply impaired recovery on the group’s largest realisable asset. Combined with the near-total write-off of RWDM Brussels and the still-uncertain Botafogo proceeds, this transaction confirms that Ares’s ultimate recovery will fall well short of its claimed exposure.

Olympique Lyonnais / Eagle Football Group sale to Michele Kang

The press release, issued by Eagle Football Group S.A. (‘EFG’ or ‘the Company’) from Lyon at 3:30 pm on 23 June 2026, confirms that agreements have been reached between, inter alia, Eagle Bidco (in administration), Michele Kang, the OL Group, and OL SASU’s senior secured lenders. Definitive agreements were executed on the date of the release. The document sets out the following structure in precise terms:

The press release describes a competitive sale process conducted by Cork Gully LLP, joint administrators of Eagle Bidco, whose statutory duty is described in the release itself as being ‘to maximise the value from Eagle Bidco’s assets for the benefit of its creditors.’ 

As part of that process, confidentiality agreements were entered into by EFG with more than five interested parties demonstrating credible interest and appropriate financial capacity. 

An Ad-Hoc Committee of three independent directors (Gilbert Saada as Chair, Nathalie Dechy, and Victoria Westcott) was established on 14 April 2026 to oversee the administration process on the Company’s behalf and to manage the conflict of interest arising from Kang’s own involvement as both bidder and incumbent Chair/CEO, with Gilbert Saada personally representing the Company and OL SASU in the change-of-control process for that reason. The Bidco Administrators determined that Olympe Bidco’s offer represented the best available outcome, having regard to the purchase price, certainty and speed of execution, and the ability to satisfy the OL Group’s urgent financing needs.

The release specifies that the US$ 30,000,000 price would, in part, be settled on a cashless basis by setting off a portion of the debt owed by Eagle Bidco to YMK Holdings, LLC at completion, meaning Kang’s vehicle already held a debt position against Eagle Bidco prior to this transaction, which is being used to part-fund the equity purchase rather than requiring fresh cash. The euro equivalent of the price is to be calculated using the US$/EUR exchange rate prevailing on the day before completion of the block acquisition.

The release describes two distinct mechanisms by which value beyond the immediate transaction may flow back to creditors:

The press release does not identify which specific lenders are ‘exiting’ (being bought out by YMK Holdings) versus which are ‘remaining secured creditors’ (entitled to share in the 12-month upside mechanism). This distinction is significant for Ares’s position and could not be confirmed from the primary source.

Reprofiling of OL’s secured debt

Separately from the Eagle Bidco-level transaction, OL SASU and its senior secured lenders under the RCF and FCT facilities have reached an agreement whereby those creditors agree to capitalise their interest and capital for an eighteen-month period and, where applicable, reprofile capital repayments and adjust covenants in the relevant financing documentation. 

This reprofiling takes effect subject to, and as of the date of, completion of the EFG share acquisition and implementation of the EUR 71,000,000 funding commitment. The lenders under the RCF and FCT financings would be entitled to propose the appointment of observers on the board of directors for the next 24 months.

Governance and corporate changes

Michele Kang would remain Chair and Chief Executive Officer of EFG and President of OL SASU; Michael Gerlinger would remain general manager of OL SASU. 

The OL Group will exit the group comprising all affiliates of Eagle Bidco, while continuing to be managed independently from OL Féminin. The Company will be renamed ‘Olympique Lyonnais Groupe S.A.’ 

The works council of the Company issued a positive opinion on the proposed Transaction, noting it is not expected to have any direct impact on employment. The board of directors, meeting on 22 June 2026 chaired by Gilbert Saada, approved the execution of the agreements, without the vote of Michele Kang, who refrained from taking part in the discussions and the vote on any decisions referred to in the release, given her conflict of interest as buyer. The listing of the Company’s shares was confirmed to resume by 24 June 2026.

Ares Capital Corporation’s position after the OL sale

The verified scale of Ares’s claim

Ares Capital Corporation is the secured creditor whose qualifying floating charge (dated 9 December 2022) was used to appoint Stephen Cork and Anthony Cork of Cork Gully LLP as joint administrators of Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited on 27 March 2026, acting as Security Agent for secured noteholders under a Notes Purchase Agreement originally dated 25 October 2022. 

Cork Gully’s Statement of Proposals, filed at Companies House (deemed delivered 22 May 2026), records Ares’s claim at US$547,372,900, secured by ten separate charges. This figure was independently confirmed by Bloomberg on 3 June 2026: ‘Ares Management Corp. was owed more than $547 million following the collapse of John Textor’s Eagle Football Group, according to a filing by the administrators.’

A separate, larger figure of approximately US$1.2 billion has been widely reported as Ares’s total exposure inclusive of accrued payment-in-kind (PIK) interest. This figure derives from my own analysis of the underlying note tranches, reported as $300 million at 16%, $135 million at 18%, and a further $159 million at 19.4%, all structured on a PIK basis. It is NOT the figure recorded in the Companies House Statement of Proposals. The two figures should not be conflated: $547.4 million is the confirmed, primary-source principal claim; c.$1.2 billion is my estimate of total accreted exposure.

Distinguish carefully: US$547,372,900 is the Companies House-confirmed claim. c.US$1.2 billion is my analysis-derived estimate of total PIK-inclusive exposure. Both figures appear in public reporting and should not be used interchangeably.

Public filings reviewed by Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance reporting indicate that Ares had already marked down its own valuation of the Eagle Football exposure ‘from the low 30-cents on the dollar to about 16 cents,’ reflecting Ares’s own internal assessment of likely recovery prior to the OL transaction being finalised. This 16-cent mark is consistent with, and provides independent corroboration for, the heavily impaired recovery implied by the US$ 30,000,000 sale price for the OL stake.

The Statement of Proposals estimates a shortfall to the floating-charge holder (Ares) of GBP 411,731,710, calculated BEFORE any recoveries from the club shareholdings (OL/EFG, Botafogo, RWDM), all three of which were valued as ‘Uncertain’ in the Proposals at the time of filing. 

The Proposals further confirm that unsecured creditors (estimated at approximately GBP 74.9 million) are expected to receive nothing, and that the anticipated exit route is dissolution under paragraph 84 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 within approximately 12 months of appointment.

The US$ 30,000,000 gross price for Eagle Bidco’s 87.78% stake in EFG,  against a US$547.4 million primary claim, and set against a confirmed GBP 411.7 million pre-club-recovery shortfall, confirms that the OL asset alone will recover only a small fraction of Ares’s claim. One informed commentary on the Statement of Proposals estimated an overall recovery for Ares ‘under 20%’ once all assets (OL, Botafogo, RWDM) are accounted for; this is consistent with, though not identical to, Ares’s own c.16-cent internal mark. Both figures point in the same direction: a substantial, likely permanent, loss on Ares’s original lending.

Is Ares an “exiting” or “remaining” creditor

The press release’s two upside-sharing mechanisms distinguish between ‘exiting lenders’ (whose debt positions YMK Holdings will purchase before completion) and Eagle Bidco’s ‘remaining secured creditors’ (entitled to share in a 12-month post-closing upside mechanism via Olympe Bidco). 

The release does not name either category. Based on the available evidence, the most probable inference is that the OL SASU-level secured lenders, reported elsewhere to include Goldman Sachs, MUFG and MetLife. are the parties consenting to the 18-month PIK reprofiling and are most plausibly the entities remaining engaged with OL’s own financing, rather than the Eagle Bidco holdco-level noteholder syndicate that Ares heads. 

Ares’s own position, as the dominant secured creditor of Eagle Bidco itself (rather than of OL SASU specifically), most likely falls within the ‘remaining secured creditors of Eagle Bidco’ category for the purposes of the second (12-month liquidity event) mechanism, given its central role in the Bidco-level administration and reported consent to the process. This inference could not be independently confirmed from any primary source and should be treated as analytical judgement, not fact.

No primary source explicitly classifies Ares as either an ‘exiting lender’ bought out by YMK Holdings or as a ‘remaining secured creditor’ of Eagle Bidco entitled to the 12-month upside mechanism. This is a material open question for any party modelling Ares’s ultimate recovery.

Remaining assets available to Ares

Beyond the now-sold OL/EFG stake, the only remaining Eagle Bidco assets available for Ares’s recovery are Botafogo (approximately 90% of the SAF) and RWDM Brussels (approximately 99.5%). Both are addressed below. 

Crystal Palace FC is not part of this analysis or the available estate, Eagle’s 43% stake was sold to Woody Johnson (owner of the New York Jets) for a reported £190 million (US$254 million), completing on 24 July 2025, before the administration began, with proceeds reportedly applied substantially to Ares.

Implications for Botafogo and intercompany receivables

Botafogo intercompany claim against OL

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas SAF has an outstanding claim against Olympique Lyonnais of approximately EUR 125 million (reported as R$745 million), arising from the ‘caixa único’ (single cash register / shared treasury) arrangement that operated across Eagle Football Group’s multi-club structure during John Textor’s ownership. 

A Brazilian court issued an initial order requiring OL to pay approximately EUR 20.8 million toward this claim, a partial, interim figure rather than resolution of the full claimed amount.

The press release’s confirmation that the Transaction includes ‘the release of OL Group’s liabilities towards other affiliates of “Eagle Football”‘ directly captures the Botafogo intercompany claim. 

On the plain wording of the release, this is a release running in OL’s favour, extinguishing what OL/EFG owed to other Eagle affiliates, which would include amounts owed to Botafogo under the shared-treasury arrangement. 

This is consistent with the broader purpose of the transaction as described in the release: enabling ‘the OL Group [to] exit the group comprising all affiliates of Eagle Bidco’ cleanly, free of the tangled intercompany liabilities that characterised the Eagle Football multi-club structure.

Practical effect for Botafogo: this release substantially impairs, and likely effectively extinguishes, Botafogo’s prospect of recovering the bulk of its c.EUR 125 million claim against OL through the ordinary intercompany route. Botafogo’s practical recourse is increasingly confined to its position as an unsecured (or low-priority) creditor within Eagle Bidco’s own administration estate, rather than as a direct claimant against OL post-sale.

The release language in the press release is framed unilaterally, as a release of OL Group’s liabilities TOWARDS other Eagle Football affiliates, rather than as a mutual, two-way release. 

On a strict reading, this clears OL’s debts to Botafogo and other affiliates, but does not on its face address whether Botafogo or other affiliates owed anything to OL that might also need to be released for a clean intercompany settlement. 

In practice, given that the substance of the caixa único dispute was Eagle/OL entities owing money to Botafogo (not the reverse), the practical effect is likely to be a clean exit for OL regardless of directionality. 

The precise legal mechanics, and whether any residual claim survives in Botafogo’s favour against any other Eagle entity (as opposed to OL specifically), were not addressed in the press release and could not be confirmed from any other primary source reviewed for this report.

Current status of the Botafogo sale to GDA Luma

Separately from the OL transaction, a binding contract was signed on 5 June 2026 for the sale of approximately 90% of Botafogo SAF to GDA Luma Capital for US$105,000,000, including forgiveness of an approximately US$25,000,000 bridge loan advanced in February 2026 and assumption of certain SAF liabilities within Botafogo’s ongoing Brazilian recuperação judicial (judicial reorganisation) process. 

As of late June 2026, this transaction is SIGNED BUT NOT CLOSED. Completion depends on: (a) the broader Lyon/Eagle debt settlement, which the 23 June OL transaction substantially advances by clearing the OL side of the intercompany dispute; (b) a Cork Gully share transfer of Eagle Bidco’s Botafogo holding; and (c) Brazilian judicial approval within the recuperação judicial proceedings.

The OL transaction removes one of the principal blockers to the Botafogo sale closing, because the two processes were linked through the same disputed intercompany cross-debts. With OL now exiting the Eagle perimeter and the relevant intercompany liabilities released, the Cork Gully administrators have one fewer complex cross-claim to resolve before they can complete the Botafogo share transfer to GDA Luma. This should, in principle, accelerate the Botafogo closing timeline, though it does not resolve the separate and serious complication of John Textor’s competing ownership claim, Textor has filed suit in Rio de Janeiro asserting that he, not Eagle Bidco, remains the legal owner of the Botafogo SAF shares, on the basis that Eagle never completed payment of approximately R$150.3 million due to him personally under the original 11 November 2022 sale agreement.

It should be noted that GDA Luma holds only a second-ranking pledge over Eagle Bidco’s Botafogo shares; Ares ranks first. This means that even once the Botafogo sale closes, any net proceeds reaching Eagle Bidco’s estate (as opposed to amounts retained within the Botafogo SAF structure itself, including debt forgiveness and liability assumption that do not generate cash for Eagle Bidco) will be applied to Ares’s claim ahead of any other creditor, including Botafogo’s own intercompany claim to the extent any portion of it survives against any Eagle entity other than OL.

Overall status of the Cork Gully administration

Cork Gully LLP’s Statement of Proposals (Form AM03) was filed at Companies House, deemed delivered on 22 May 2026. 

No creditors’ meeting or vote was convened, as no distribution to unsecured creditors is anticipated; the Proposals were deemed approved under Rule 3.38(4) of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016. Pre-appointment costs disclosed include Cork Gully time of GBP 389,724, CMS legal fees of GBP 343,972, and Comarco fees of GBP 30,926, figures consistent with a planned, well-resourced enforcement process rather than an emergency filing.

Asset-by-asset status

John Textor’s position

John Textor was removed as a director of Eagle Bidco (a removal he disputes) and has provided no Statement of Affairs to the administrators, nor cooperated with the administration process; he remains subject to an ongoing director-conduct investigation. 

He has separately contested Ares’s actions across UK, US and Brazilian proceedings, including filing a complaint with the French AMF alleging an undisclosed Kang–Ares ‘shadow board’ arrangement, and pursuing the Rio de Janeiro claim to Botafogo ownership described above. 

Eagle Football Group itself has separately filed a criminal complaint in France targeting Textor-era management over alleged misuse of corporate assets. No specific public statement from Textor reacting to the 23 June 2026 Kang/OL transaction had been identified as of the date of this report.

Anticipated exit route

The Statement of Proposals anticipates that Eagle Bidco will ultimately be dissolved under paragraph 84 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986, within approximately 12 months of Cork Gully’s appointment (i.e. by approximately March 2027), once the realisable assets, now substantially the Botafogo proceeds and whatever residual value can be extracted from RWDM, have been collected and distributed in accordance with the statutory order of priority, with unsecured creditors (c.GBP 74.9 million) expected to receive nothing.

In summary:

John Textor response

In the interests of balance, John Textor placed the following press release on 23rd June 2026 via the Eagle Football website: A call for independent oversight and accountability at Eagle Football Group

Caveats and source assessment