Crystal Palace needs saving… Could Woody Johnson or Jimmy Butler be a hero?

Crystal Palace is in trouble, but the English Premier League club could be saved by a few heroes from different places.

After defeating Manchester City on May 17 to win the FA Cup, Crystal Palace earned its first-ever major trophy, and with that, an automatic bid into the 2025-26 UEFA Europa League tournament. 

However, the club may not be allowed to compete in the Europa League because one of its minority stakeholders, John Textor, also owns a majority stake in the Ligue 1 team Lyon. UEFA’s rules prevent two teams with the same ownership to play in the same competition unless shares in one club are placed into a blind trust.

Textor failed to complete that part of the clause by the March 1 deadline. But, he’s willing to make up for it by putting his group’s stake in Crystal Palace on the market. 

There’s a couple of groups that could vie for position to obtain Textor’s share. The leading candidate is, reportedly, New York Jets’ co-owner Woody Johnson, who shares control of the NFL franchise with his brother, Christopher. Johnson also has ties to England as he was the United States’ ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2021. 

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson could be eyeing a stake in English soccer team Crystal Palace. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)

Another potential candidate is, reportedly, a group compiled of sports agents and executives, but notably, the face of that group is Golden State Warriors star Jimmy Butler. Butler has shared his love for soccer, publicly, for many years now and hosted players such as Neymar and Vinícius Júnior at Miami Heat games in the past.

NBA superstar Jimmy Butler is a big soccer fan, and is part of a group that could also invest in Crystal Palace. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images)

Regardless of who ends up with Textor’s share of Crystal Palace, if the transaction is successful, it would resolve the multi-club ownership issue that threatens the team’s spot in next season’s Europa League, and would allow them to compete for another major trophy.

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