Despite the Ligue 1 TV rights fiasco and a deleterious climate in French football, Vincent Labrune remains the big favourite for his re-election as president of the Professional Football League (LFP) on Tuesday in Paris.
The college of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs will meet in the morning, then the General Assembly at 2:30 p.m. to designate their representatives to the Board of Directors, which will elect the new president at the end of the day.
Vincent Labrune, 53, in office since September 2020, has only one opponent: Cyril Linette, also 53, former Sports Director of Canal+, former General Manager of L’Équipe then of PMU.
The former president of Olympique de Marseille (2011-2016) was initially promised re-election without competition, but the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra asked the Union of Football Actors (UAF) to review its position and grant Cyril Linette his essential sponsorship.
“We have avoided a re-election by acclamation,” Cyril Linette rejoices to the AFP, who wants the League to use its expertise in the “recovery” of structures “in difficulty”.
Regardless, “a sham election is looming,” thinks RC Lens president Joseph Oughourlian, who has given up running for the board. Like many players and observers, he anticipates an easy re-election for Vincent Labrune, supported by several influential club presidents, such as Laurent Nicollin, head of the Foot Unis union and president of Montpellier, or Jean-Pierre Caillot, president of the Ligue 1 college and Stade Rémois.
– Promotion –
And yet, Vincent Labrune went through major upheavals during his term, and especially in his last year, for the renegotiation of TV rights. After promising a billion euros per season, and seeing the call for tenders fail, the LFP had to swallow its ambitions and sell for a total of around 500 million euros to DAZN and beIN Sports.
A drop from the 624 million euros obtained during the previous era, and a catastrophe for the finances of French clubs, some of which derive the majority of their income from it.
“This is obviously not the result we had initially imagined, but it allows us not to compromise the future,” Jean-Pierre Caillot said at the time.
Still: piracy threatens the financial windfall of clubs from TV rights. DAZN has provoked the ire of many Internet users and supporters with prices deemed prohibitive, which encourage them to look for broadcasts on Telegram or IPTV. Its boss in France Brice Daumin nevertheless announced to AFP that he was launching a promotion on Tuesday, valid from September 10 to 22, lowering the price of its annual subscription from 29.99 to 19.99 euros per month.
The fact remains that the exit clause planned after two years if the threshold of 1.5 million subscribers is not reached is another sword of Damocles hanging over French football.
– “Snake Charmer” –
“We are told that we could not do better on the amount of rights because there would be a global crisis in sports rights. Looking at the other leagues, I find it hard to believe,” emphasizes Joseph Oughourlian, while the rights of the Bundesliga or Italian football have stabilized.
“Vincent Labrune is a snake charmer, with a gift of the gab, he thought that would be enough to sell,” criticised Christophe Bouchet, another former president of Marseille, who wanted to run but did not receive the necessary sponsorship, to AFP.
French leaders “think that football will be stronger than everything, well no, it is less crucial in people’s lives in a landscape of infinite entertainment,” he analyses.
Regretting the “violent bashing”, sometimes “bordering on insults” in the media and on social networks, Vincent Labrune’s relatives are already looking ahead to “afterwards” – a sign of great confidence that speaks volumes about the meager suspense.
Vincent Labrune wants to close the TV rights crisis by prioritizing the fight against piracy, by “better promoting the product” – in particular with codes that speak to young people. And he is preparing an overhaul of the criticized governance of the LFP.
This will not prevent the Senate inquiry committee on the financialisation of football from visiting the LFP headquarters after the election, as it announced on 4 September.
bap/zub
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