The Professional Football League (LFP) will elect its new president on Tuesday. And this will take place in two acts, first with the vote of the general assembly to determine the composition of the new board of directors. This will be composed of 17 people with deliberative voice (who can vote) and five members in an advisory capacity (who do not have the right to vote). And the suspense is tenuous for this first part.
The President elected by the new board of directors
Twenty of the 22 members are already known. After the withdrawals of Joseph Oughourlian (Lens) and Waldemar Kita (Nantes), the seven seats in Ligue 1 will be occupied by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi (PSG), Jean-Pierre Caillot (Reims), Damien Comolli (TFC), Olivier Létang (Lille), Pablo Longoria (OM), Jean-Pierre Rivère (Nice) and Juan Sartori (Monaco). In Ligue 2, there will be three presidents fighting for two places: Loïc Féry (Lorient), Pierre-Olivier Murat (Rodez) and Bernard Joannin (Amiens).
The three independent members will be Vincent Labrune, Cyril Linette and Karl Olive. The representative of the FFF will be Marc Keller, president of Strasbourg and member of the Comex of the FFF. The representative of Foot Unis, the clubs’ union, will be its president Laurent Nicollin. The UNFP, the players’ union which has two seats will be represented by Philippe Piat and David Terrier. Finally, Jacky Bonnevay will be the representative of UNECATEF, the coaches’ union.
The last five positions, which are only advisory, will be filled by other football families: referees (SAFE, Olivier Lamarre), administrators (SNAAF, Lola Pierres), doctors (AMCFP, Eric Rolland), as well as the president of the FFF, Philippe Diallo and, where applicable, the CEO of the LFP.
If the outlines of the CA are already very clear, this first round of voting will have a symbolic stake for the independents from whom the new president will come. Olive has already indicated that he will not run for the presidency, leaving the first two to engage in a duel. Linette, an outsider, will then try to collect more votes than Labrune from the 18 Ligue 1 clubs whose votes carry the most weight (2.75 per club), the 18 from L2 (1.75 per club), the unions (2 per union) and the FFF (one vote). Coming out on top after this vote by the AGM would allow him to make his mark, but it would not guarantee him victory, however. Far from it.
Because the election of the new president will come at a later date and will be decided by the 17 voting members of the new board of directors with the same distribution of the weight of the votes (2.75 for each of the 7 L1 clubs on the CA, 1.75 for each of the two L2 clubs on the CA, 2 per union and one vote for the FFF), but a reduced number of voters. Depending on the results, a second round may be organized if no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first. Vincent Labrune is, in this respect, the clear favorite with members a priori overwhelmingly in his favor.
- RMC Sport
