The bizarre moment a Premier League owner wears a COWBOY HAT for PSG match – amid public spat with their Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaifi
- A Premier League club owner wore a cowboy hat after a spat with another chief
- The confrontation lit up over the summer over French football television rights
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Crystal Palace owner John Textor embraced his cultural heritage as he donned a cowboy hat to hit back at a rival owner on Sunday.
Textor owns a 77 per cent stake in French club Lyon and was involved in a heated dispute over the summer with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
The confrontation, which was over the direction of Ligue 1’s TV rights, saw Al-Khelaifi call Missouri-born Textor a ‘cowboy’, with the American branding his rival a ‘bully’ and ‘tyrant’.
And Textor decided to make light of the feud before Lyon’s 3-2 loss to PSG on Sunday, wearing a cowboy hat and waving it to the cheering home fans.
‘I wore the hat because I was feeling confident, but I don’t really see myself as a cowboy,’ said Textor.
‘We had intense discussions with Nasser Al-Khelaifi regarding TV rights, and I wasn’t even aware he had called me a cowboy. When I heard about it, I thought it would be funny to show up with the hat.’
Lyon owner John Textor wore a cowboy hat for his side’s 3-2 defeat against PSG on Sunday
His move comes after a spat over Ligue 1 TV rights in which PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi called him a ‘cowboy’
French football has been hit with a financial crisis in recent seasons and they are on the verge of a third television rights deal collapsing in four years.
On July 14, the owners of Ligue 1’s 18 clubs assembled on a video call to iron out the future of the division’s broadcast rights.
Sixteen of the 18 owners voted in favour of a deal with DAZN and beIN Sports.
In a four-year deal, DAZN are paying French football’s governing body (the LFP) £334million per season to broadcast eight out of nine games each weekend, with beIN paying £83m for each Saturday night match.
However, Textor was one of two owners to back the risky idea of the league setting own its direct streaming platform.
In a leaked video seen by L’Equipe and Complement d’enquete, Textor and Al-Khelaifi were seen clashing.
Textor accused PSG president Al-Khelaifi of being a ‘bully’ and a ‘tyrant’.
Al-Khelaifi snapped back: ‘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.’
Textor also owns a 45 per cent stake in Crystal Palace, which he is looking to sell
However, the LFP could be forced to turn to a direct streaming model.
DAZN have withheld half of a recent £58m instalment of funding, claiming that the league has not done enough to combat digital piracy, and that clubs have not been promoting their service sufficiently.
Reports in France suggest that DAZN have only amassed around 500 million subscribers out of a target of 1.5 million.
If they do not reach that figure by December, they will have to option to break the contract at the end of the second season, leaving Ligue 1 without a broadcaster once again.
The league has a hugely uncertain financial future, with broadcast revenues falling.
In December 2020, Mediapro ended a £2.75billion contract just four months into the agreement.
TNT Sports then decided against renewing their deal at the end of last season, although a boost has been received in recent days after Amazon Prime Video agreed to stream a selection of matches to a UK audience.
