Billionaire Co-Owner Of New York Jets Completes Purchase Of Crystal Palace F.C.
Robert 'Woody' Johnson has completed his purchase of a 43% stake in Crystal Palace from Eagle Football Holdings, the south London club confirmed on Thursday.
The 78-year-old billionaire said he was honored and privileged to be joining the ownership group of Crystal Palace. 'It is an organization with a proud history, tradition, and deep roots in English football in south London, which I came to admire during my time as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom,' he said.
'This is more than an investment - it's a commitment to realizing the vision for the club, the community, and the culture around Selhurst Park.' he added.
Johnson served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. during Donald Trump's first term as President. As the heir to the health products giant Johnson & Johnson, he has a net worth of $3.5 billion, according to the World's Real-Time Billionaires ranking.
Johnson joins Steve Parish, the club's chairman, and fellow Americans Josh Harris and David Blitzer on the board of Crystal Palace.
Parish said, 'At this exciting time for Crystal Palace, we are delighted to be welcoming Woody to the ownership of the football club, and we very much look forward to working alongside him to build on our historic recent success moving forwards.'
Johnson's investment in Palace comes at A time when the club is waging a campaign to overturn UEFA's decision to eject them from the Europa League for breaching the European governing body's rules on multi-club ownership. Eagle Football, the investment vehicle of John Textor, also owns a 77% stake in in French club Lyon, who had also qualified for the same competition.
Lyon takes precedence over Palace because of their higher league finish. The seven-time French champions were sixth in Ligue 1, whereas Palace was 12th in the Premier League.
Palace have instead been demoted to the Conference League, and Nottingham Forest have taken their place in the Europa League.
Palace have submitted an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against their demotion. The club have lodged their appeal against UEFA, Lyon and Nottingham Forest. CAS is expected to make its decision on the case on or before August 11.
UEFA's decision to strip Palace of its place in the Europa League was 'the most ridiculous technicality you could ever imagine,' Parish had said to Sky News earlier. And he later said that he was "very hopeful" UEFA's decision would be overturned.
'We don't think this is the right decision by any means,' Parish told The Rest is Football podcast. 'We know unequivocally that John [Textor] didn't have decisive influence over the club. We know we proved that beyond all reasonable doubt because it's a fact.'
Earlier this week, Crystal Palace supporters traveled to UEFA's headquarters in Switzerland to protest the governing body's decision. The Holmesdale Fanatics, an ultras-style supporters' group, said that they delivered a letter to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin to demand that Palace be reinstated into the Europa League.
They also delivered a suitcase filled with fake money as a means of illustrating 'the contradictions between their supposed 'fundamental values' of integrity and fairness, and the reality of their business methods and general conduct.'
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson speaks at the press conference in New Jersey. (Photo by Ed ...)
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