Vincent Labrune widely re-elected president of the LFP until 2028

Vincent Labrune was comfortably re-elected on Tuesday, September 10, as president of the Professional Football League (LFP), until 2028, by the members of the board of directors of the body. Despite the fiasco of the TV rights of Ligue 1 and a deleterious climate in French football, the former president of Olympique de Marseille, 53, won with 14 votes out of 17.

“This is a significant score, much higher than that of four years ago, which shows that French professional football has reunited to get back to work immediately.”reacted Labrune at a press conference after his election. “The ballot boxes have spoken and we are very satisfied.”

His opponent, Cyril Linette, former head of the sports department of Canal+, of the newspaper The team and the PMU, obtained two votes. There was one blank vote. “On the proposal of the board of directors, the general meeting elected Vincent Labrune president of the LFP in the first round (85.67%)”made the LFP official on his X account.

The outgoing president was initially promised a re-election without competition, but the resigning sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had asked the Union of Football Actors (UAF) to review its position and grant Cyril Linette its essential sponsorship so that he could run for the presidency of the LFP.

M. Linette recognized the “victory without appeal” of its competitor. “I’m obviously disappointed, a little stunned, I expected a better result”he told the press as he left the LFP Board of Directors meeting in Paris. “The governance of French football is satisfied with its strategy and visibly with its results and its management and has demonstrated this very clearly”he added.

“I still think that this [que propose Vincent Labrune] is not the right model, that French football must review its product, its costs, its relationship with fans, its governance, and that we need a real business manager instead”detailed Cyril Linette.

Vincent Labrune, in office since 2020, was easily re-elected despite experiencing major upheavals during his first term, and particularly in his last year, around the renegotiation of TV rights.

While Vincent Labrune had promised to obtain a billion euros per season, the LFP, after seeing its call for tenders fail, had to swallow its ambitions and sell Ligue 1 matches for an annual total of around 500 million euros to DAZN and beIN Sports. A significant drop compared to the 624 million euros negotiated during the previous cycle and a disaster for the finances of certain French clubs.