Vincent Labrune has a modest triumph. On Tuesday, September 10, when he announced his comfortable re-election (85.7% of the votes in the general meeting, after massive support from the board of directors) to the presidency of the Professional Football League (LFP) for a second four-year term, the former communicator with long silver hair did not brag.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Vincent Labrune, on the tightrope, candidate for his succession at the head of the LFP
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His rival, Cyril Linette, former director of the PMU and The teamwas certainly largely defeated at the polls after having obtained the necessary sponsorships to compete thanks to the intervention of the resigning Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, and the Elysée. But Mr. Labrune knows well that he approached this election with the wind in his face, under a deluge of criticism.
The difficulties encountered in awarding domestic television rights to Ligue 1 for the 2024-2029 cycle (nearly 500 million euros per season after the validation, this summer, of offers from the British platform DAZN and the Franco-Qatari channel BeIN Sports) have considerably weakened Mr. Labrune. The head of the LFP had set an ambitious financial target (1 billion euros per year including international rights), which was ultimately unattainable.
Supported wholeheartedly by influential leaders of French football, such as the boss of Paris Saint-Germain and the BeIN Media group, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, and despite some disaffection, the former leader of Olympique de Marseille (2011-2016) was able to count on an electoral system described as “Soviet” by its opponents, and tailor-made since a statutory reform of 2022, validated by the public authorities.
Reduction in remuneration
From the outset, Mr. Labrune committed to “get back to work immediately”, giving pledges to his detractors, by promising to “set an example” and to lower his salary (1.2 million euros gross per year), while the lifestyle (purchase of a new Parisian headquarters for 120 million euros, substantial expense reports) of the LFP is causing controversy. In July, he had already written off a bonus in the event of departure of 5.4 million euros.
“The success of Vincent Labrune is undeniable. But the crisis in professional football is salient, reacts to the Monde Yvelines MP (Renaissance) Karl Olive, reappointed to the LFP board of directors. The economic model must change radically in substance and the mode of governance radically in form. And as an independent member of the board of directors, I intend to do my bit to help, otherwise we will be honking our horns into a wall.”
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