Moment Premier League club owner dresses as cowboy and parades around in hat in sarcastic jibe at rival
CRYSTAL PALACE co-owner John Textor was seen wearing a cowboy hat as he hit back at Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi following a bitter row.
Leaked footage from a meeting of Ligue 1 owners revealed American Textor, who is the majority owner of Lyon, was called a “cowboy” by the PSG chief.
The leaked video, shared by Complément d’enquête and L’Equipe, saw a video call on July 14, 2024 about the French domestic TV deal descend into a war of words between the two club presidents.
The aim of the meeting was to resolve the French league’s long-running saga of TV rights for the next four years which had left football in the country in crisis mode.
An auction process initially looking to bring in £863million ended up securing a deal worth far less with only two deals being proposed.
The first was a £417m deal with DAZN and beIN Sports which would see DAZN show eight of the nine Ligue 1 fixtures each weekend with beIN show the remaining Saturday evening game.
The second was a far riskier idea to move the league to its own streaming service – a model Premier League bosses considered before signing a new record £6.7bn domestic television deal running for four years from the 2025/26 season.
Emotions boiled over during the tense meeting as the two bosses disagreed over what deal the league should accept, with Textor, 59, being in favour of the streaming model.
Textor accused Al-Khelaifi of being a “bully” and “tyrant”, while Lens president Joseph Oughourlian also accused the PSG chief – also the chairman of beIN Sports – of having a conflict of interest.
Al-Khelaifi, 51, responded by saying: “John, stop talking, you don’t understand anything, you’re from… I don’t know, cowboy, you’re coming, I don’t know (from) where, and you’re talking to us.”
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With the heated argument being publicly revealed this week, Textor chose to walk out at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium ahead of the club’s clash with PSG on Sunday evening.
Going into the game PSG were the league leaders with a 10-point gap to second place side Marseille, while Lyon sat in sixth place and five points off a Champions League qualification spot.
Following a goalless first half, the deadlock was finally broken by Achraf Hakimi in the 53rd minute.
PSG then showed their quality once again as Ousmane Dembele netted a stunning curling shot just before the hour mark.
Rayan Cherki pulled one back for the hosts in the 83rd minute before Hakimi restored the two-goal lead two minutes later.
Lyon found a second goal in injury time when Corentin Tolisso crashed home a header, but they were unable to find an equaliser, ensuring PSG moved 13 points clear at the top of the table.
Textor is the chairman of Eagle Football Holdings, which owns a 45 per cent stake in Crystal Palace.
However, Textor’s role at the Selhurst Park outfit is set to change in the coming months.
It comes after Sportsbank, a group backed by individuals from Saudi Arabia and the United States, announced it had signed an exclusivity agreement to buy the 45 per cent stake for around £230m.
Despite Textor looking to sell his stake in the club, he is reportedly still open to buying the majority of the club if the opportunity arose.
Textor’s company also holds controlling shares in Brazilian club Botafogo and RWD Molenbeek in Belgium.
The company failed with a bid to buy Everton last year, with The Friedkin Group led by fellow American billionaire Dan Friedkin completing a deal to buy a controlling 94.1 per cent stake in December 2024 worth in excess of £400m.