PRESS CONFERENCE: Michele Kang, OL President, and Michael Gerlinger, Managing Director.

Source: Press conference transcript, Michele Kang (OL President / Majority Owner) and Michael Gerlinger (Managing Director), 23–26 June 2026 window | 

Summary

On 23 June 2026, all transaction documentation was executed following an intensive multi-party negotiation described by Kang as the most complex transaction encountered by many of the more than 100 lawyers involved across the various stakeholder groups. Completion was made conditional on confirmation from the DNCG (France’s football finance regulator) that OL would retain its Ligue 1 status for 2026/27. That confirmation was received immediately prior to the press conference, at which point Kang confirmed she is now the official majority owner of the club.

The transaction architecture, as described by Kang, comprises five components: (i) her purchase of the Eagle Bidco vehicle held by Ares Management and affiliates; (ii) acquisition of OL Groupe (“EFG”) shares held by Eagle Bidco for US$30 million; (iii) a €75 million aggregate cash injection (€71 million into the club plus €4 million toward transaction costs); (iv) full release of intercompany debt owed by the OL group to Eagle affiliates, resulting in a write-off in excess of €230 million; and (v) an 18-month deferral of repayment installments on the revolving credit facility (RCF) and StadCo (stadium) loans, with no financial charges due until 1 January 2028.

Kang and Gerlinger framed three forward priorities: completing financial restructuring and stabilisation; building a break-even, then profitable, operating model; and rebuilding sporting competitiveness within the club’s means. Kang disclosed that the 2024/25 season loss exceeded €200 million and stated this had been halved in the most recently completed year under the current leadership.

Two matters were raised in questioning but not substantively resolved on the record: (a) the financial relationship between OL and Botafogo arising from cash-pooling arrangements during John Textor’s tenure, which Kang stated is governed by audited, AMF-compliant accounts showing a balance owed to OL, but which remains unresolved pending Eagle Bidco’s UK administration process; and (b) an independent compliance review of practices inherited from the prior ownership/management, the findings of which were stated to have been published via press release, with any matters beyond that review left to investigating authorities.

Transaction structure and capital commitments

Kang separately noted, in response to a question on the valuation, that the headline purchase price understates the scale of her commitment, since the consideration paid for the equity/share components sits alongside the €75 million cash injection and the value of obligations assumed (existing debt, contingent liabilities and operational commitments). She characterised the sale process as competitive, citing a social media report, which she had not independently verified at the time of speaking, that as many as four other bidders had been involved.

Total group indebtedness was referenced once by Kang as “almost a billion dollars,” which she immediately corrected to “billion euros.” This self-correction is noted verbatim given the figure’s materiality; the transcript does not provide a reconciliation of this aggregate debt figure against the specific facilities (RCF, StadCo) named elsewhere in the briefing, and it should not be treated as a precise disclosed total absent the underlying accounts.

Negotiation process and counterparties

Kang described the process as running on three parallel work-streams in the period leading to the 23 June signing:

• Negotiations with the UK court-appointed administrator for the Eagle entities (the administrator’s name as transcribed was unclear/garbled in the source audio and is not reproduced here with confidence).
• Negotiations with the club itself, under the auspices of the chair of an ad hoc committee overseeing the scale and structure of the new investment (the chair’s name was likewise unclear in the transcript).
• Discussions with senior lenders on both the stadium debt and the revolving credit facility, including two lenders named in the transcript whose names were not clearly rendered in the source audio.

Kang stated that “important accommodations” by these lenders were essential to give the club and new ownership the runway required to execute the restructuring, and that all parties worked through the night of 22–23 June to finalise the full suite of transaction documents.

Regulatory position DNCG

The DNCG’s decision, per Kang and confirmed under questioning, maintains OL in Ligue 1 for 2026/27 but applies a salary-mass (wage bill) limitation for the season. Gerlinger characterised this constraint as consistent with, rather than more restrictive than, the club’s own planned recruitment strategy, stating the club would not have spent beyond this limitation in any case. No figure for the salary cap itself was disclosed in the transcript.

Strategic and financial priorities

• Complete the financial restructuring and stabilisation of the club, described as the immediate, non-negotiable priority, but pursued in parallel with, not sequentially before, the other two pillars.
• Build a financially sustainable operating model achieving break-even and, in short order, profitable growth.
• Reclaim sporting competitiveness, strengthening the first team, investing in the academy, and cultivating an environment for players, staff and supporters to thrive, explicitly bounded by “within our means.”

Loss trajectory

Kang stated the club’s loss for the 2024/25 season exceeded €200 million, and that this had been cut roughly in half in the year just completed under the current leadership. Management’s stated expectation is to reach break-even within the next “couple of years,” with profitability shortly thereafter. Gerlinger separately indicated the restructuring and investment capacity build-out is expected to run on a cautious basis through 2028, with potential acceleration if the club qualifies for the Champions League.

Ownership commitment 

Asked whether the investment is short-term or a longer commitment, Kang stated there is “nothing short-term” about the situation, that a responsible restructuring will take several years, and that a purely transactional, in-and-out approach would have been better executed by a financial institution rather than by her personally. She described her motivation in terms of asset-value conviction and personal/community connection, citing her existing involvement with the women’s football side,  while explicitly stating that the women’s operation and OL would remain run “totally separate.”

On further capital, Kang stated she has committed to the disclosed cash injection over the relevant period and currently has “no other plan” to bring in additional outside sources or partners, but said it would be “irresponsible” to rule out future sources of capital or expertise if needed to execute the strategy.

Kang and Gerlinger both acknowledged significant personal and financial risk taken on as part of the transaction, with Kang stating there had been points, including in the days immediately before the 23 June signing, where she questioned whether the deal would complete, and characterising certain moments in the process as “near-death” for the transaction itself.

Open / unresolved matters raised in questioning

OL–Botafogo cash-pooling relationship

In response to a question relayed from a Brazilian journalist (Globo) on the financial relationship between OL and Botafogo arising from single cash-pool arrangements used during John Textor’s tenure, Kang stated:

• She could not go into detail, citing the matter’s complexity and the likely need for legal input.
• Eagle Bidco remains in a UK administration process, with the administrator responsible for monetising assets for the benefit of the security agent; resolution of the Botafogo question is described as the administrator’s responsibility, not OL’s.
• OL’s own audited financial statements, published semi-annually per AMF rules, show a balance owed to OL, Kang did not specify the quantum on the record.
• OL’s stated position is to await the conclusion of Botafogo’s ownership/administration process before engaging further, and offered to make the club’s CFO available for a detailed financial briefing if required.

This is flagged as an open item: the transcript provides no quantified figure for the receivable, no timeline for resolution, and no detail on how this interacts with the wider Eagle Bidco administration or with prior reporting on Eagle Football Group’s multi-club cash-pooling structure.

Inherited governance and compliance review

Asked directly about the prior ownership/management and whether there were undisclosed liabilities (“skeletons in the cupboard”), Kang characterised her response as standard new-leadership practice rather than commentary on any individual: on taking over, she and the leadership team commissioned an independent external review of the club’s compliance with AMF and audit rules, given the complexity introduced by the prior multi-club, cash-pooling structure. The reviewers interviewed staff and issued recommendations, which Kang stated were published via press release. Kang declined to characterise or expand on any matters beyond that published review, stating it would be inappropriate to comment further while authorities and any investigations are ongoing, and that such matters should be left to run through the relevant legal/regulatory processes independently.

Sporting leadership and strategy

Gerlinger announced the formal appointment of OL’s sporting director, effective 1 July, described in the transcript by the first name “Matthieu”/”Mat”. The appointment formalises a role that did not previously exist in this form: under the prior Eagle Football multi-club structure, sporting strategy across OL, Botafogo and RWDM Molenbeek was centrally coordinated by Gerlinger as group sporting director; with that multi-club structure now dissolved for OL’s purposes, the sporting director role consolidates recruitment, staff/coach/player relationship management, and day-to-day strategic execution under a single dedicated position.

On sporting ambition, the newly appointed sporting director and Gerlinger reiterated the prior season’s stated goal of qualifying for European competition, noting the club had been told this was “impossible” on its budget but had nonetheless contended for direct Champions League qualification (ultimately falling short). The stated ambition for 2026/27 is unchanged: compete for Champions League qualification on a comparable budget to the prior season, with recruitment beginning in early August ahead of qualifying fixtures around 4–5 August. No transfer targets were named on the record.

Kang, while deferring sporting decisions to Gerlinger and the sporting director, set a business-level framing for sporting performance: rather than targeting Champions League qualification or silverware every season, the explicit goal is consistent top-three Ligue 1 finishes with a gradual upward trajectory, avoiding the volatility of swinging between high and low league positions year to year.

Leadership and communications

Kang described herself as having been a deliberately private individual prior to this role, stating she does not use social media or LinkedIn, and indicated she will engage publicly only to the extent required, delegating most stakeholder and media communication to Gerlinger and the broader leadership team. She articulated a delegated-leadership philosophy: setting strategy and organisational structure, then empowering specialists (citing Gerlinger on football matters as an explicit example) to execute without micromanagement.

Caveats 

Conclusion

The press conference confirms that the Kang acquisition of OL has formally completed, with DNCG clearance secured for 2026/27 Ligue 1 status subject to a wage-bill constraint, and with a transaction package combining equity/share acquisition, a €75 million cash injection, a >€230 million intercompany debt write-off, and an 18-month debt-service deferral on the RCF and stadium facilities. Management’s own framing is that the transaction closes one phase, survival and restructuring, and opens a second, longer phase of building a sustainably profitable, competitively consistent club. Two matters disclosed only at a high level,  the OL–Botafogo financial relationship and the scope of the inherited-governance compliance review,  warrant continued tracking as they are likely to generate further disclosure as the Eagle Bidco administration and any related investigations progress.