Labrune and Al-Khelaïfi targeted by the Senate

It was time to take stock this Wednesday for senators Laurent Lafon and Michel Savin, respectively president of the committee on culture, education, communication and sport and rapporteur of the senatorial commission of inquiry on the financialization of French football. “ Our observation is severe and uncompromising, but objective », says the first by way of introduction.

At the heart of the debate, obviously, the management of the Professional Football League and the last two deals concluded: with the CVC investment fund (13% of LFP revenue for life against 1.5 billion euros) one share; DAZN and beIN Sports for
L1 TV rights over the period 2024-2029 (compared to barely 500 million euros) on the other hand. “ Mistakes have been made in the management of French football. Worse still, no lessons were learned from the mistakes. We can still see this in the recent allocation of audiovisual rights. These errors place clubs in very delicate situations », insists Laurent Lafon.

Labrune's salary capped?

In their conclusions and recommendations, the senators particularly target the president of the LFP Vincent Labrune, freshly re-elected on September 10 and a time flanked by a record salary increase – from 420,000 to 1.2 million euros per year – since planed by 30%. “ Is it normal that the president of the LFP earns twice as much as the president of SNCF, RATP or EDF? », asks the aforementioned centrist senator from Val-de-Marne.

The Senate committee therefore declared itself in favor of a “ ceiling on the remuneration of presidents of professional leagues, similar to that existing for public companies (€450,000) ”, while “ limiting the amount of their severance pay to six months of salary excluding bonuses “. And to campaign so that “ the function of president of the commercial subsidiary of a professional league is not remunerated when exercised by a representative of the League “. Precisely the subtlety that allowed Vincent Labrune to benefit from such a salary increase.

Al-Khelaïfi, a conflict of interest singled out

Another personality targeted by the Senate, although not mentioned: the president of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, incidentally boss of beIN Media Group. The commission recommending “ to introduce an incompatibility between the function of member of the board of directors of a professional league or its commercial company and the holding of interests or the exercise of functions within an audiovisual broadcasting company ».

Among other recommendations (35 in total), the Senate recommends stricter supervision of the payroll of professional clubs, and a limitation of 30 players under contract per L1 or L2 club. In order to preserve the players, Laurent Lafon and Michel Savin also advocate the limitation “ of the number of competitions, by opposing the FIFA Club World Cup project and by limiting the annual number of matches per professional player. »