John Textor Sues Investors After They Sue Him Over Failed $1B Soccer Merger

John Textor claims two investors with dubious ties to Russian oligarchs bamboozled him into signing a complicated financing deal that was meant to take his soccer empire public, while the investors allege Textor is trying to dodge a nearly $94 million payment.

Textor sued James Dinan and Alexander Knaster, and their company Iconic Sports Eagle Investment LLC, in a Florida federal lawsuit filed July 4. Dinan is the founder of hedge fund York Capital Management and part-owner of the NBA’s Bucks, while Knaster owns investment firm Pamplona Capital Management. 

Textor’s suit claims he was defrauded by way of a complex financing arrangement tied to an ill-fated go-public deal for Eagle Football Holdings Limited—the holding company that owns his stakes in several soccer clubs, including Olympique Lyonnais in France and Daring Brussels in Belgium. According to Textor, the deal was destined to fail because Knaster—and another investor in Iconic—had “close financial ties with Russian individuals and assets that were the subject of international sanctions.”

However, his suit was filed after Iconic sued Textor in the U.K. on July 3, alleging that Textor has failed to pay up under a put option that was tied to a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) merger meant to take Eagle Football public at a $1.2 billion valuation. 

Under the put option—which could be triggered if the SPAC merger was not completed by a certain date—Iconic paid £1 for the right to compel Textor to buy back its $75 million stake in Eagle Football for that cost, plus 11% annual interest. As of today, the total cost when including interest is a little under $94 million, according to Iconic’s suit.

Textor says he agreed to the put option under those terms because he was convinced the deal was a sure thing, but later found out that the investors knew the transaction—which officially died in September 2023—was doomed from the start due to their undisclosed ties to sanctioned Russian oligarchs. Textor claims the defendants misrepresented their ability to obtain financing for the transaction because the Russian ties meant major banks would not work with them. 

According to Textor’s suit, Knaster’s London-based firm Pamplona received “significant funding prior to 2022” from individuals who had been hit with sanctions by the U.S., U.K., and European Union. Those individuals are Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, German Khan, and Alexey Kuzmichev, all of whom are associated with Russia’s Alfa Bank, as well as investment firm LetterOne Holdings. The suit says Pamplona received funding from those people through LetterOne.

There are reports from the summer of 2022 about Knaster’s ties to those sanctioned Russians. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Textor first went into business with Iconic Sports that November.

Had he known about the connections to sanctioned Russian individuals ahead of time, Textor “would not have sold the put option for such a low price or with such a high interest rate,” the complaint says.

Iconic’s suit—which is not public but was obtained by Front Office Sports—tells a different story; it says it has been trying to get Textor to pay the money he owes under the put option for years, to no avail. Iconic says it informed Textor in July 2023 that it was exercising the put option, but that he didn’t respond, and so it continued sending letters demanding that he honor the agreement. Eventually, Textor requested a meeting, which was held in July 2024. During that meeting, Textor “stated (amongst other things) that he had no ability or intention to pay the sums required under the Put Option Agreement,” Iconic’s suit claims.

A spokesperson for Iconic said in an emailed statement that Textor’s suit represents “an attempt to delay and frustrate ongoing legal proceedings and the recovery” of the debt obligation, and that “John Textor now appears to be resorting to fictional and easily disprovable claims against Iconic Sports and its directors.”

“Iconic Sports is simply seeking to enforce its contractual rights, a process initiated in 2023, and will continue to pursue its lawful claims in the appropriate venues,” the statement said.

Textor is still trying to take Eagle Football public; last month, the company made a confidential IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.