Textor wins Botafogo lifeline as ownership battle escalates

John Textor has secured a temporary High Court injunction blocking the sale of a 90% stake in Botafogo, preserving his attempt to regain control of the Brazilian club while legal proceedings continue in multiple jurisdictions.The order prevents administrators of Eagle Football Holdings Bidco from selling the stake until at least September 9, when the dispute is scheduled to return to court. Cork Gully took control of the insolvent holding company in March and subsequently began seeking buyers for its Botafogo shares.Judge Mark Pelling KC said: “There is now an implied risk the shares will be disposed of sooner rather than later.”The injunction represents a temporary victory for Textor rather than a determination that he owns the shares. His legal action argues that Eagle Bidco failed to pay him for the Botafogo interest and that control should therefore return to him.The dispute has become a test of how ownership rights in a cross-border football investment structure are treated when the holding company enters insolvency proceedings. Botafogo sit at the centre of parallel proceedings involving courts and arbitration processes in England, Brazil and the US.A Brazilian court had previously declined to grant Textor an equivalent injunction, finding at that stage that there was insufficient evidence of an urgent threat that the shares would be sold. The English court considered the position had since changed after administrators withdrew an undertaking not to dispose of the stake.Eagle Bidco has not substantively participated in the English proceedings, with the court instead receiving a letter concerning the effect of an injunction on any potential transaction. Pelling said the lack of evidence from the company created difficulties for the court when assessing Textor’s account.Textor said: “If Eagle Bidco continues to elect not to appear, and not to defend or oppose Mr. Textor’s claims, then intermediate measures (such as injunctions) will be less important, and it should be only a matter of time when Mr. Textor’s claims of ownership prevail through the full proceedings for rescission and declaratory relief, and Mr. Textor is re-established as the owner of SAF Botafogo.”The wider dispute follows the breakdown of Eagle Football’s multi-club structure and has left control of Botafogo separated from Textor’s former operational authority. He was removed from the club’s leadership in April during arbitration proceedings, adding a governance dispute to the fight over the underlying shareholding.The September 9 hearing will determine whether the restriction on a Botafogo sale remains in place while the underlying ownership claims continue.