Marketing of TV rights: Raid on France’s league association on suspicion of corruption

In France, financial investigators are raiding the LFP football league association and the financial investor CVC on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds and corruption. The searches followed investigations started in July that were examining the financial investor’s entry into the marketing of the TV rights for the French soccer league Ligue 1 in 2022, the financial prosecutor’s office in Paris said. According to media reports, the investigators also went to league president Vincent Labrune.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint from the anti-corruption association “AC!” At the end of 2023, the accusation of embezzlement of public funds was raised during the founding of a subsidiary of the LFP, which takes care of the marketing of the TV rights, the public prosecutor’s office said.

League receives much less money than expected

In France, CVC bought 13 percent of the shares in the newly founded LFP subsidiary in 2022 for around 1.5 billion euros. In return, 13 percent of the marketing proceeds go to the investor. Two years after the investor’s much-discussed entry, Ligue 1 sold its TV rights from next season to the streaming service DAZN and the Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports this summer.

The deal caused criticism in France because it only brings the league around 500 million euros per season. This means that it is far below the expectations that were formulated when investor CVC got involved.

As the broadcaster France Info reported, the raid by financial investigators came six days after a report was presented to the Paris Senate, according to which league officials received large bonuses from the deal with CVC and therefore had a personal interest in the deal. Accordingly, league president Labrune is said to have received a bonus of three million euros and his annual salary is said to have tripled to 1.2 million euros.