the Senate crushes the governance of French pro football and advocates profound reform – Libération

Dressed for winter. The Senate severely criticized those responsible for French professional football, in a vitriolic report delivered on Wednesday October 30. The Upper House also advocates drastic reforms in the distribution of income between clubs or the salaries of managers. “Football business, stop or still?” This is how senators Laurent Lafon (UDI) and Michel Savin (LR) question the governance of French football in a report adopted unanimously in the Senate, which will probably give rise to a transpartisan bill in the upper house.

After more than sixty hearings with French football players and an inspection carried out even in the premises of the Professional Football League (LFP), the two parliamentarians spare no one in their 130-page report. Everyone goes through it: the Federation, the Ministry of Sports, beIN Sports and its boss Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, but especially the LFP and its president Vincent Labrune. “Mistakes have been made in recent years in the management of French professional football. Worse still, no lessons have been learned from the mistakes made in the past. As a result, they continue”launched Laurent Lafon in front of the press this Wednesday, wondering “if this perseverance in error did not in fact stem from deeper dysfunctions”.

The “deal” with CVC does not go through

The Senate is questioning in particular the contours of the contract signed in 2022 between the League and the investment fund CVC Capital Partners, which brought 1.5 billion euros to French professional football against around 13% of its commercial revenues. for life. To avoid conflicts of interest and strengthen democratic control of these contracts, the commission recommends, in its report,“make a clear distinction between the activities of professional leagues and those of their commercial companies by clearly separating the league from its subsidiary”. For Michel Savin, “the prospect of rapid distribution of funds to the club outweighed all other considerations [alors que] the long-term usefulness of the operation with CVC remains to be demonstrated for the clubs”. His colleague, Laurent Lafon, was quick to denounce in turn a «vision court-termiste».

Vincent Labrune is also personally concerned by the senators’ report. After the controversy over the increase in his salary from 420,000 to 1.2 million euros per year – since reduced by 30% – elected officials want “establish a ceiling on the remuneration of presidents of professional leagues, similar to that existing for public companies (450,000 euros)”.

To fight against indifference, the commission suggests “a minimum of five independent qualified administrators within professional leagues”or even «the presence of a supporter representative with a consultative voice within the general assembly and the board of directors of the leagues”. Michel Savin launched, in this sense, that “sport cannot remain in the hands of a few”.

Another major proposal: the impossibility of combining a place on the Board of Directors of the League and a function with a broadcaster. A direct reference to Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, president of Paris SG and boss of the sports television group beIN, that the senators “regretted” for not being able to audition, accusing him of having postponed several meetings.

Faced with the predation of certain investment funds which buy clubs without investing in them in the long term, the senators also recommend “strengthen the control of the DNCG (the financial policeman of football, editor’s note) over club takeovers by establishing a blocking power”.

A “piracy offense” for pirating sports channels

The two elected officials want a “equitable distribution of resources” from commercial companies with “a maximum distribution ratio of 1 to 3 of income between professional clubs”. This measure was particularly welcomed by the Le Havre club, in direct opposition to Vincent Labrune. “I hope that professional football and public authorities will take up this reform agenda. Only the entry into force of these measures will make it possible to avoid the bankruptcy of the century.reacted its president Jean-Michel Roussier.

Faced with the proliferation of broadcasters, criticized in particular by supporters and consumers, the two parliamentarians intend “rethink the regulation of calls for tenders”by favoring for example the hypothesis of a “single broadcaster”. The commission also suggests the creation of a “piracy offense in the sports field” and a “real-time processing of IP addresses to be blocked” among the offenders, in a context of massive piracy of the broadcast of Ligue 1 by Telegram accounts and IPTV. The senators also propose to “raise the levy ceiling on online sports betting” and to direct revenues to the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Agency (ANS).