searches at the Professional Football League

The LFP headquarters was searched on Tuesday as part of an investigation opened last February.

Searches began on Tuesday, November 5, at the headquarters of the Professional Football League (LFP), in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, as part of an investigation opened in February 2024, notably for “embezzlement of public funds”, Franceinfo learned from a source close to the matter. These searches were carried out in the presence of the president of the LFP, Vincent Labrune.

The investigation, carried out by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), is particularly interested in the conditions under which, in 2022, the LFP sold 13% of French football rights for life to the Luxembourg investment fund CVC Capital Partners, against a contribution of one and a half billion euros.

This search, in the premises of the LFP located in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, comes six days after the publication of an uncompromising senatorial report on the governance of French professional football. The rapporteurs (Laurent Lafon, UDI and Michel Savin, LR) denounce a “vision court-termiste” consisting of distributing funds to clubs.

In this report, the senators believe that “the leaders of the LFP objectively had a personal interest in choosing to resort to a solution based 100% on a capital raising, given the significant bonuses they received following the success of the operation”. They are surprised, for example, by the bonus of 3 million euros planned for Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP, following the agreement with the investment fund, as well as the tripling of his annual salary, from 420,000 euros to 1.2 million euros. At the beginning of October, the League's board of directors finally reduced this salary by 30%. Vincent Labrune also waived his severance pay.