John Textor vs Nasser Al-Khelaifi — a French football feud that is about to go global at Club World Cup

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When the Club World Cup draw was made in December, conjuring the jumbled bones of Gianni Infantino’s strange monster into something approaching life, a few fixtures immediately jumped out.

Paris Saint-Germain vs Atletico Madrid sounded fun, like a Champions League quarter-final that had boarded the wrong flight. There was Bayern Munich vs Boca Juniors, a 22-man culture clash, plus multiple underdog tales waiting to be told — or not — by Auckland City and Mamelodi Sundowns.

Throw in the possibility for the kind of jubilant human dioramas that we have seen over the last few days — Esperance de Tunis supporters taking over Times Square, the rolling Boca roadshow — and you had most of the ingredients needed for a solid group stage.

Most but not all. There was one key thing missing, at least at first glance.

Summer tournaments are celebratory things, but you also need some dark to go with the light. Where was the match that was begging to descend into chaos? Where was the bad blood?

River Plate vs Boca? That can’t happen until the semi-finals at the earliest. It’s the same for Flamengo vs Fluminense. Benfica vs Porto is a potential quarter-final — better, but still over two weeks away. Until then, it’s all going to be relatively friendly on the pitch.

That’s the bad news. Here’s the good: there is some enmity to be found. You just have to look inside the boardroom to locate it.

On Thursday, a feud that has gripped French football will go global. It involves Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of PSG, and John Textor, the chairman of Eagle Football Group. The latter is president of Lyon, PSG’s rivals in Ligue 1. He is also the majority owner of Botafogo, the reigning South American champions — and PSG’s next opponents at the Rose Bowl.

The animosity between the men dates back to 2022, when Textor became majority shareholder of Lyon and immediately placed PSG — backed by Qatari state money, domestically dominant — in his crosshairs. “I don’t like models like PSG,” Textor said in his first press conference. “We want to go after them.”

(OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP via Getty Images)

Lyon have yet to make significant progress on that front. Textor, though, has certainly gone after PSG in the press.

He complained about the club’s Qatari ownership to the BBC in February 2024, then doubled down in a lengthy interview with Brazilian outlet Globo. “I’m competing with a country, not an owner,” he said. “It’s a model of spending without brakes, without restrictions.”

That prompted a stinging response from PSG. In a letter signed by general secretary Victoriano Melero — but almost certainly approved by Al-Khelaifi — they described Textor as “undignified”, accusing him of “playing to the gallery” with “wild attacks” and threatening legal action.

“As a newcomer to France, we humbly suggest informing yourself of some basic facts, while also perhaps having some self-reflection,” it read.

The tone of those exchanges reflected a growing friction between Textor and Al-Khelaifi in private. Days earlier, the two men had been involved in a meeting to discuss TV rights for Ligue 1, alongside the owners of the other clubs in the league.

It was a fraught occasion, with clubs on edge after the failure of the previous TV deal. Textor pushed for a Netflix-style, direct-to-consumer product, referencing his experience with streaming service FuboTV. When Al-Khelaifi, who favoured a more conventional offer from DAZN, pushed back, the meeting descended into a slanging match — as later revealed in a video leaked to French newspaper L’Equipe.

Textor accused Al-Khelaifi of being a “bully” and a “tyrant”.

“You live in a different world,” Al-Khelaifi told the American, before calling him a “cowboy”.

Al-Khelaifi got his way. Ligue 1 signed with DAZN in a deal that would end up being prematurely terminated in May. But he and Textor continued to exchange angry messages, subsequently published in L’Equipe. “You know nothing about football and I’m wasting my time talking to you,” Al-Khelaifi told Textor. “You will lose wherever you go.”

Nor was that the end of the matter. In an explosive interview with radio station RMC in January, Textor returned to the topic, accusing Ligue 1 president Vincent Labrune of bowing to PSG — and Al-Khelaifi, who also runs beIN Sports, of having a conflict of interests.

“Nasser sat there and ran the meeting,” Textor said. “He should not have even been in the meeting because he is an interested party with his own TV channels. Every time anybody would raise an alternate idea, Nasser would bark at them and intimidate and bully. The president of our league just sat there like a lapdog, didn’t say anything.”

In a statement, a Ligue 1 spokesperson said they were “surprised” by Textor’s comments. A PSG statement, seen by The Athletic, was more forceful. “It’s a shame that you can’t buy class and elegance as it would have enabled Mr Textor to avoid ridiculing himself,” it read.

(Xavier Laine/Getty Images)

There has, seemingly, been a bit of a rapprochement since then. Al-Khelaifi invited Textor to the Parc des Princes for PSG’s Champions League match against Arsenal in May, which was welcomed by the American.

“Happy to be working again with NAK (Al-Khelaifi) at this critical time, on the challenges and opportunities of French football,” he wrote on Instagram. “At times like this, we will work together. Tonight I support France!”

There was also, in February, the sight of Textor wearing a cowboy hat to Lyon vs PSG, just days after details of the TV meeting were made public. It might have struck some as a provocation, but there was an alternative reading: that Textor was injecting a little humour, maybe even some self-deprecation, into the narrative.

(OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP via Getty Images)

In truth, the two men probably have more in common than first meets the eye. Both see themselves as ex-athletes: Textor was a good snowboarder and skateboarder in his youth; Al-Khelaifi was Qatar’s best tennis player and is now a padel evangelist. Both made their money and their reputations in the media sphere, Al-Khelaifi with beIN and Textor with Fubo. They are both, to differing degrees, outsiders in the French system.

They may have clashed in the football world, but they are also similar when it comes to their interpretation of their roles at their clubs. They are hands-on, proactive, public-facing. When PSG won the Champions League in May, Al-Khelaifi was on the field, kissing the trophy. It was the same story with Textor when Botafogo beat Atletico Mineiro in the final of the Copa Libertadores in November.

None of which is to say that there will be any quarter given on Thursday. After the Libertadores final, Textor sent a photo of the trophy to his rival — a pointed dig because, at that point, PSG had not won the Champions League title that Al-Khelaifi had been dreaming of since he arrived in France in 2011.

They have now. But Textor’s reaction to the Club World Cup draw made it clear that neither he nor Botafogo will be paying them too much deference in Pasadena.

“Now we are going to play against a little team from Paris and also a big historic club: Atletico Madrid,” Textor said in April. “I really can’t wait.”

(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Xavier Laine / Getty, Clement Mahoudeau / Getty)

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