LYON, France (AP) — Lyon owner John Textor donned a cowboy hat ahead of his team's French league home match against rival Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday night in a mocking gesture seemingly aimed at PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Textor, an American businessman, waved his hat and applauded the crowd before kickoff, just days after leaked footage from a meeting of Ligue 1 club owners revealed how sour the relationship between Textor and his PSG rival has become.
During that July meeting, Al-Khelaifi called Textor a cowboy. Textor called Al-Khelaifi a bully.
The handling of the league’s TV rights was at the heart of the dispute.
Following the collapse of its record-breaking TV rights contract with Spanish-based broadcaster Mediapro in 2020, the league hoped it could get up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) per year from the sale of broadcasting rights for 2024-29 but had to lower its target. In the end, the league settled for 500 million euros per year after sealing a late deal with British streaming platform DAZN and BeIN Sports.
DAZN and the French league are now at loggerheads and embroiled in a legal battle.
It was not the first war of words between Textor and Al-Khelaifi. Textor believes his rival has conflicts of interest because of his role as chairman of BeIN Media Group and argues that PSG’s funding model is breaking European Union laws. PSG and Al-Khelaifi deny any wrongdoing.
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The Associated Press
