The Professional Football League raided for suspicion of embezzlement of public funds – Libération

Hectic morning for the Professional Football League (LFP) and the CVC investment fund. Searches have been underway in their offices since Tuesday morning, November 5, AFP learned from a source close to the case and from a judicial source, confirming information from the Team. According to the sports daily, searches are also underway at the home of Vincent Labrune, the president of the League. The AFP has not had confirmation at this stage of these searches.

They are part of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), opened on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds, active and passive corruption of public officials and illegal taking of interest, said the source. judicial.

The affair became known in November 2023: the AC association! Anticorruption had filed a complaint denouncing a possible misappropriation of public funds during the creation of the commercial company of the Professional Football League. Which was created after a partial transfer of capital to the Luxembourg investment fund CVC Capital Partners.

The agreement was concluded in April 2022. The CVC investment fund acquired 13.04% for life of the capital of the League in exchange for a cash contribution to the League of 1.5 billion euros. The investigations, entrusted on July 16 to the Paris Research Section, must clarify the conditions of this agreement and in particular the role of the various protagonists.

The commercial company had also interested parliamentarians, who last April sent a commission of inquiry into it. However, they revised the scope of their own investigations so as not to encroach on the work of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).

More generally, the senators were interested in the intervention of investment funds in French professional football. Their report, delivered on October 30, undermines management «court-termiste» of French professional football and calls for major reform. They recommend, in particular,“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 Senator LR Michel Savin, rapporteur of the information mission on the financialization of football, “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”.