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June 19, 2026

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RWDM Statement - License Commission Preparation and Decision

 

 

The purpose of this communication is to provide RWDM supporters with an unprecedented level of transparency into the facts, circumstances and extremal factors that, since June 29 of 2025, have all but assured the demotion of RWDM to the 3rd division of Belgian football.

 

 

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As painful as demotion to the 3rd division may be, RWDM would inform our supporters that the management team and board, while limited in its powers, did everything possible to maintain its position in Division 1B (the 2nd division of Belgian football). The board, however, could not deliver the attention of the court-appointed administrators of Eagle Football Bidco, which was required to satisfy the license commission's desire for a change-of-control.

 

That said, a significant cash infusion, combined with the heroic effort of the management team, was able to prevent demotion to the 5th division, which surely would have been fatal for the club.

 

All player salaries, employee salaries, taxes and operating expenses have been paid, and the sporting project of RWDM will be funded with a singular ambition, to achieve a promotion and return to professional football in Belgium. 

 

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Background

 

Firstly, it should be made clear that RWDM leadership demonstrated a level of financial support for our annual license application, that under normal circumstances would have assured our maintenance in the 2nd division.…but these are not normal circumstances. 

 

The on-going civil war within Eagle Football, beginning with the unilateral and illegal rupture of our multi-club business model by the current leadership of Olympique Lyonnais, has left RWDM saddled with an unpaid receivable from the French club that far exceeds the challenges that we face.  The refusal to honor payables, impacting both RWDM and Eagle’s Botafogo in Brazil, is being celebrated as shrewd financial discipline, in France, but only so one community can thrive at the expense of others.

 

In such a circumstance, we understand that the license committee would have been open-minded to any source of capital, so long as it would be accompanied by a change-of-control transaction. Absent such a change-of-control, away from Eagle Football, we knew our license would be in jeopardy, regardless of how clear it was that we could afford to fund the manageable budget of the 2026/27 season.

 

So, for now, we would like to provide you with a full picture of our license application, including the details of recent financial investments, and going forward commitments, that were sufficient to secure our placement in the 3rd division, as an economically viable football club, which can position for a return to professional football.  Were it not for the hard work of our management team, and a significant cash infusion from our Board in the days before the licensing hearing, RWDM would surely have been relegated to the 5th division of Belgian football, effectively a sporting death.

 

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The Fundamental Pillars of our License Application

 

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The License Commission looks at two economic concepts, Viability and Continuity

 

  • Viability:

    • To satisfy ‘viability’, the license commission made it clear that RWDM needed to satisfy approximately €2.0 million of critical payables for such items as player salaries, employee salaries, taxes, suppliers and payables to other football clubs;

    • If RWDM proved ‘viability’, we would be assured of placement in the 3rd division, with the legal ability to retain our athletes (under contract) and position for a return to professional football;

    • If RWDM could not prove ‘viability’, our entire squad would be entitled to break their contracts and leave, immediately killing the sporting project and the company as all essential assets of the club would evaporate;

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  • Continuity:​

    • In the case of RWDM, we needed to show at least €5 million of funding available for the club, an amount which is quite affordable;

    • Further, even with a significant investment from the Board of RWDM, the message from the licensing commission made clear they expected Eagle Bidco (led by the law firm of Cork Gully) to agree to a change-of-control.

    • To satisfy ‘continuity’, RWDM would need to show that ownership had the wealth (or the funding) necessary to finance the operating budget of the club, with a reasonable amount of excess funds to anticipate unexpected financial impacts;

 

 

What did we deliver?...Cash and a qualified Buyer

 

  • On Viability, to prevent the administrative relegation to the 5th division, Wyndcrest Holdings, and affiliate of our board member John Textor, made a direct cash investment of €2.0 million on May 18, 2026, such amount adding to approximately €2.5 million funded by Wyndcrest during the final months of the 2025/26 season.

    • RWDM, therefore, was able to pay player salaries, employee salaries, suppliers, taxes and other critical payments, fully catching up on operating payments which had previously been delayed.

    • Moreover, this allowed RWDM to report the club to be in full compliance with its facilities/stadium agreements, and other operating agreements - the cash injection, therefore, enabling the club to report to the licensing commission that all critical requirements for Viability had been met;

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  • On Continuity, RWDM management presented three (3) ownership groups, as alternatives for 2026/27 and beyond:

    • Preferred Buyer: Global sports-media investment group, based in Paris, and backed by Ultra-High-Net-Worth individual

      • The Board, based on pre-existing relationships, recruited this buyer candidate to purchase RWDM, as the Board believed the club would fit well into their existing portfolio of sports and media assets;

      • The Board was well acquainted with the buyer’s network of related companies, which is supported by a well-funded Hong Kong publicly-listed ‘parent’ company, and a Paris-based affiliate as the ‘buyer’;

      • The buyer produced a confirmation letter from one of the world’s most prestigious private banks, based in Zurich, assuring the license commission of the financial capabilities of the private backer of the buyer entity;

      • The buyer also produced an enforceable ‘comfort letter’ guarantee, and a shareholder financing agreement, which RWDM hoped would assure the committee that RWDM (with the license) would again be a heavily funded football club;

      • The buyer and RWDM also produced a comprehensive (and executed) Share Purchase Agreement (‘SPA’), and RWDM recommended this buyer to the commission in its request for the license;

      • Regrettably, in spite of aggressive efforts to procure a response from Cork Gully (Eagle Bidco), RWDM was not able to obtain the necessary consent that would be required to consummate the SPA, and the license commission viewed the change-of-control as speculative and unreliable.​​

    • Alternate Buyer: Local supporter group, to include former owner, Thierry Dailley, as a minority partner;

      • RWDM learned of this offer, indirectly, from the administrators of Eagle Bidco, very late in the licensing process (May 15, 2026);

      • The offer was a zero-cash proposal, that required numerous third-party concessions that could not possibly be delivered in a timely manner, so the “TD Group” proposal was not credible and could not be presented as reliable during RWDM’s presentation ot the license commission;

      • RWDM leadership did meet with the largest (majority) investor of the TD Group, on the night before the hearing, and the board of RWDM came to view this individual as a highly credible business-owner and passionate supporter of RWDM;

      • RWDM, even with no financial information available from the TD Group, presented this group to the commission (as an alternate) as an attractive potential owner of the club;

    • Transition Option: Existing Board (John Textor) in transition to the Preferred Buyer

      • With a strong belief that the above referenced Paris-based sports-media buyer would consummate the purchase of RWDM within 3-5 days of the approval of the license, RWDM management proposed that existing director, John Textor, be relied upon by the licensing commission as the party responsible to fund the club’s 2026-27 2nd division season;

      • Serving only in his capacity as a director of the club, with no legal obligation to do so, Mr. Textor caused Wyndcrest Holdings to fund €2.0 million in cash on May 18 in recognition of a moral obligation to help RWDM meet its critical obligations;

      • Including the above cash infusion, Mr. Textor has been the only source of external financing for the club, having injected roughly €4.5 million, since late 2025 (all while knowing that he would likely never be the owner of the club);

      • Mr. Textor also delivered to the licensing commission an enforceable ‘comfort letter’ commitment to fund the full 2026/27 season of RWDM, supported further by a financial report (including third-party appraisals of assets), confirming Mr. Textor’s financial capabilities to meet such obligations.

      • RWDM is informed that the licensing commission would not consider Mr. Textor’s offer of financial support as relevant to the application for a ‘1B’ license, given his historical connection to Eagle Football. 

 

 

Why did we fail?

 

We delivered Viability, with a significant cash infusion from our Board, catching up fully on all deferred operating expenses.

 

We delivered Continuity, with 3 strong buyer alternatives, with two that demonstrated significant documentation of financial capability, plus a local group that would likely have been able to do the same.

 

We could NOT deliver the cooperation of Cork Gully, administrators at Eagle Football Bidco, to assure the change-of-control, which gave the licensing commission enough uncertainty as to deny our license.

 

To conclude, RWDM sincerely believes that the cooperation of Cork Gully, which required little more than an administrative response, would have been sufficient to convince the license commission that RWDM was fully funded and likely to complete the proposed change-of-control transaction.

 

As a result of this lack of cooperation, RWDM was likely to be demoted to the 5th division of Belgian football, if not for an immediate injection of cash.

 

Thanks, however, to the hard work of the management team, and the financial support of the board, RWDM was able to secure placement in the 3rd division, with a restructuring and sporting strategy that can now compete for an immediate return to Belgian professional football.

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