After weeks of negotiations, controversies and withdrawals, the election of the new president of the Professional Football League (LFP) will take place on Tuesday. With two candidates including a big favorite: Vincent Labrune, currently in office and in a very favorable position to succeed himself. Facing him, Cyril Linette hopes for a miracle in this two-stage voting method. The former sports journalist who worked for Canal+ or L’Equipe, whose candidacy was validated only a week ago by the last-minute sponsorship of the Union of Football Actors (UAF), still has a chance to weigh in on the election. Particularly during the first phase.
Objective: to be better elected than Labrune and Olive by the AGM
His strategy will thus be to be the best elected of the three independents by the general assembly of the LFP ahead of Vincent Labrune and Karl Olive (who will not run for the presidency afterwards). In detail, the three candidates (for three positions) will receive their votes from the 18 representatives of Ligue 1 clubs (each vote counts 2.75), the 18 from Ligue 2 (1.75 per club), the five unions (two votes per union) and the FFF (one vote). Once the election of the 17 members of the board of directors by the AGM, the CA will then vote to elect the new president who should come from the three independents. And this is where things should get complicated for Linette.
Because the vast majority of candidates are already known and seem very favorable to Vincent Labrune. This is particularly the case of the seven representatives of Ligue 1 after the withdrawals of Joseph Oughourlian (Lens) and Waldemar Kita (Nantes), rare opponents of Labrune. The first denounced a “sham election” because of the tiny margin of maneuver left to the opposition with a large majority of the members of the CA visibly acquired to the cause of Labrune.
Linette, who has met almost all the representatives of the 36 Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs, hopes to benefit from strong support during the first phase of the election to get ahead of Labrune and secure a first symbolic victory. This could – why not – induce a new dynamic before the choice of the CA even if the trend is clearly not in his favor. If he is not elected, Linette’s adventure in the League will end immediately since he has promised to resign in such a case to leave his place to a member of the family like Alain Guerrini (boss of Panini).
- RMC Sport
