C’est une sortie qui a surpris la planète sport. Dimanche dernier, Tony Parker, qui assistait au match de Ligue 1 Lyon-Metz, a annoncé au micro de la chaîne Prime Vidéo son retour au sein de l’organigramme de l’Olympique Lyonnais. L’ancien basketteur, qui est également le président de l’Asvel, le club de basket de la ville de Lyon, s’est même assis sur le siège de John Textor, le patron américain de l’OL, dans la tribune officielle du Groupama Stadium. Une image qui interpelle puisque Parker avait quitté le board de l’OL à la fin de l’année 2022, suite au rachat du club lyonnais par le holding Eagle Football, détenu par John Textor.
So how can we deal with TP’s unforeseen return to OL?To understand this, it is necessary to go back to the beginnings of the entrepreneur Parker. In 2009, when he was still shining on the NBA court with the San Antonio Spurs, TP became a stake in Asvel. As the months have gone by, the former leader of the French national team has increased his stake and became a major shareholder and chairman of Asvel in 2014. Their ambition is clear: to allow the Lyon club to register for the Euroleague, the most prestigious European basketball festival in Europe.
Dans le même temps, Parker se lie d’amitié avec Jean-Michel Aulas, l’ancien président de l’Olympique Lyonnais, club qui détient environ 25% du capital de l’Asvel depuis 2019. Les deux hommes travaillent ensemble et s’apprécient, au point que JMA propose à Tony Parker d’intégrer le conseil d’administration de l’OL en juillet 2020. Alors qu’il était un temps pressenti pour prendre la succession d’Aulas à la tête de l’Olympique Lyonnais, Parker quitte finalement le board de l’OL fin 2022, avec le passage du club sous pavillon américain.
Parker’s return to the OL board of directors is not illogical, according to Vincent Chaudel, sports economist and founder of the Sport Business Observatory. “Textor had to turn to investors to buy OL and, when the sale agreement was signed in 2022, the club will also be able to be European,” he explains. But today OL no longer participates in the European Cup and is even betting on relegation to Ligue 2, which would be a disaster. The sporting effects necessarily have an impact on the club’s profitability. economic functionality and worry investors. “The return of Parker, who is a respectable figure in the United States, would possibly be aimed at reassuring those investors. “
He continued: “Due to his numerous activities, Textor is not present in Lyon (he is also president of the Brazilian football club Botafogo, editor’s note). Parker, with his return, may constitute the physical embodiment of the OL presidency. “He is interested in participating in the recovery of the club as OL is a shareholder of ASVEL”.
But there may be another explanation for TP’s return to OL. Asvel, and its chairman Tony Parker, intend to buy the LDLC Arena, a 16,000-seat sports hall that belongs to John Textor’s OL Group. This new stadium located in Decines, near the Groupama stadium, will be inaugurated on November 23. ” There is communication about the purchase of the entire venue. “Our base will continue to be Villeurbanne,” the former leader of the French national team told L’Equipe newspaper on October 6. I’m not going to go into the numbers, because we’re in the nepastization phase. “John Textor, who is looking to sell assets to fund soccer academies around the world and thus create a pool of potential long-term recruits for OL, is in a position to sell LDLC Arena.
For its part, Parker, according to our information, is in the process of increasing the budget for the purchase of the room, with the foreign organization Fedcom, which operates in the cereals and fertilizer sectors. The company has already entered the world of basketball by making an investment in the OTT (streaming) platform Skweek, which broadcasts the French basketball championship. The integration of Tony Parker into OL’s board may facilitate the transaction and allow Asvel to gain a foreign-status corridor in which the club will be able to play its EuroLeague games.