Woody Johnson, owner of the Jets, buys shares of Crystal Palace

The owner of the New York Jets, Woody Johnson, has reached an agreement for 190 million pounds sterling (254 million dollars) to acquire 43% of the shares of Crystal Palace, a Premier League team, owned by the American businessman John Textor, according to a source. This agreement is subject to Premier League approval and Johnson, former US ambassador to the UK, passing the league’s owners’ and directors’ test, also known as the Fit and Proper Persons Test. The Premier League has not issued any comments on the matter. A source close to the deal has indicated that confirmation of it between Johnson and Textor could arrive on Monday morning.

If Johnson’s agreement with Textor is approved by the Premier League, this could pave the way for Palace, champions of the 2024-25 FA Cup, to participate in the next edition of the UEFA Europa League. Furthermore, it would prevent the club from breaching multi-club ownership rules, due to Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings Group also owning a majority stake in the French club Lyon. The Palace has not yet been authorized to play in the Europa League due to ongoing negotiations between the club and UEFA. Although Textor is not involved in the day-to-day management of Palace, which is controlled by chairman Steve Parish and American investors Josh Harris and David Blitzer, UEFA rules prevent two teams with the same ownership from playing in the same competition, unless the shares of a club are placed in a blind trust. Textor failed to place his shares of Palace or Lyon in that vehicle by the UEFA deadline of March 1, more than two months before Palace secured their qualification for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup. Textor has been trying to sell his shares of Palace, with Johnson emerging as the main candidate to buy his stake. Johnson, 78 years old, was the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2021 and previously tried to buy Chelsea after the UK government sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Johnson has previously stated to be a Chelsea supporter.