When we call Thierry Dailly, he is just on his way back to Belgium. The pushed aside chairman of RWDM, who still owns 20 percent of the shares, had to hear the news abroad. Not really a moment when you expect something like this.
“You don’t expect anything like that at all,” Dailly shrugs. “I was stunned by this decision. Everyone knows how I’ve worked for the past eight years. Whether it was financially or sportingly: I think I can say that it has been a great success, with the recent title as the highlight. If you then get on your plate that you are incapable of recruitment, that sports director Julien Gorius has also failed…”
“On the other hand, I wasn’t surprised at all when I read it. It’s not the first time the character(Dailly refers to John Textor, ed.) makes such a slip. After the championship match, he was asked what his sporting ambitions are. His answer: Botter les fesses d’Anderlecht and Union(“Giving Anderlecht and Union a kick in the ass”, ed.). That says enough about his level.”
“If we look at the sporting aspect, you only have to look at our current selection. Who all has been recruited by Julien Gorius? 95 percent of the players who have become champions here. That man did an exceptional job here. When I then see how Textor takes the championship trophy, saying that he intervened in time and that RWDM became champion thanks to him… I can’t understand that.”
“He blames me that the team was not ready before the start of the first competition day. However, any seasoned football executive will agree with me when I say that the best deals are done in mid-August, sometimes even late August. A team simply cannot be completely ready before the start of the competition.”
Ten years with Thierry
“After winning the title, Textor confides to the press that he wants to continue with me for another ten years. We can still clash every day, but if that brings us a title year after year, we will continue like this. And look, now you understand that it was a lie from A to Z. I am put at the door, without boo or bah. Everything I have done for the club has suddenly been forgotten. Oh well, he also did Jean-Michel Aulas, an icon of French football, at Olympique Lyon.”
“Anyone who thinks it is an emotional decision by Textor is mistaken. This had been foreseen for three or four weeks, even longer. And then waving with beautiful words on the evening of the title. We had mapped everything out so beautifully together, but nothing remains of our joint commitment. That’s not football to me. What I have achieved in eight years, that is football. But this? That is a character in football.”
Rabies
Most notable in Textor’s voluminous statement were the following allegations against Dailly: misappropriation of club funds, abuse of corporate authority and disruption of corporate governance, and violent and harassing behavior that resulted in a toxic workplace.
“I strongly deny those serious allegations, which are totally unfounded,” Dailly is resolute. “However, I am taking this very calmly. After all, I don’t like to wallow in negativity and revenge is not in me either. I also think that everyone in professional and amateur football now knows that I am a correct man, I have been in football long enough for that. Ah, whoever wants to drown his dog says he has rabies. That is exactly what is happening now.”
For life
“What happened is shocking and hurtful, but somehow it doesn’t touch me either. After all, I know that I am 300 percent right in my shoes. I will also demonstrate this when necessary.”
“And what about the club? RWDM will never stop for me. I am a shareholder, and I will be chairman for life. If I get a message from supporters, it’s Mister President, thank you president. I will not miss a single game in the stadium, and no matter what happens, I will always be the club’s first supporter. I cannot and will not argue that Textor owns 80 percent of the shares. It won’t change the fact that the club is most important to me and not the people around it.”