« What concerns me today is Ligue 1: the situation is serious. With a deficit of 1.2 billion euros, we will have to act quickly. […] It's paradoxical because there is, on the one hand, a complicated financial situation, and, on the other, a craze in the stadiums, with more than 27,000 people on average per match. » Marie Barsacq, recently appointed Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life in the government of François Bayrou, does not mince her words in the columns ofWest France. No one can blame him for speaking without knowing, especially without knowing how to count. The former head of the Paris 2024 COJO knows the subject well having worked for a long time at the FFF, certainly on the amateur side.
Above all, his speech is based on the frightening figures from the DNCG and the alarmist declarations of its president, Jean-Marc Mickeler. The latter targeted in particular the excessive spending of clubs while revenues, and in particular those from TV rights, have fallen. And the future looks rather bleak. DAZN, whose commercial policy has largely contributed to driving Ligue 1 out of our minds, still cannot, from discount to discount, exceed 500,000 subscribers (estimated). The broadcaster is already asking to renegotiate the terms of a contract that is hardly generous. Knowing that in 18 months, he will be able to terminate his commitments and abandon Le Havre-Auxerre. Financial clarity is not for tomorrow, and the LFP risks ultimately having to launch its own channel, with the inevitable costs that this will entail.
In short, in this gloomy context, the supervisory authorities are putting pressure on the professional clubs, which, for the moment, still do not seem to have taken the measure, or simply been aware, of the impending catastrophe, preferring not to speak only good results from French teams – apart from PSG – on the European scene. John Textor's statements – which nevertheless have the merit of shaking the coconut tree – have thus been reduced to a clash with Nasser al-Khelaïfi. The federation clings to its Ligue 3 project while brilliant minds want to resurrect a League Cup that no one regrets.
We must make football a great national cause. Today he is in serious danger. I always said that we had to copy German football.
Certainly, Pierre Ferracci, president of Paris FC now owned by the Arnault family and Red Bull, demonstrated a slightly egocentric realism on RMC: « We must make football a great national cause. Today he is in serious danger. I always said that we had to copy German football. » However, before launching the major projects, it would be above all essential that the main culprits, who succeeded in the feat of reappointing Vincent Labrune at the head of an LFP without perspective or strategy, begin to think a little about their share of responsibility in this shipwreck. We are far from it.
-The call of the 425 does not find an echo in football
Obviously, the whole of French sport is suffering from disaster. 425 athletes signed a text to demand that the State safeguard the legacy of Paris 2024. Teddy Riner, Marie Patouillet, Nicolas Batum and company express their deep disappointment and a touching feeling of abandonment: « Less than 6 months after the end of the Games, we were told of a 33% drop in the sports budget in France. However, this already only represents 0.2% of the total state budget. Added to this is a 50% drop in credits in certain local authorities, which are nevertheless real pillars for our clubs. » In the lot, a few village or neighborhood FCs, sacrificed on the altar of austerity, of which none of the brilliant leaders of the federation, the league or professional footballers – who are conspicuous by their silence on the subject – seem to worry.
Our Olympian athletes can have the legitimate feeling of having done the job and just asking for a little recognition from the public authorities in return. In the case of football, the diagnosis is quite different. It is indeed an entire ecosystem that threatens to collapse under the weight of the madness of grandeur and the incompetence of its bosses. Hoping that public money will not serve as a cover for their failures.
There are many others « major national causes » which must be taken care of first, including in football: sexual violence, homophobia, racism, etc. Professional football today prefers to get bogged down in conspiracy theories around refereeing rather than questioning the quality of the game offered on the pitch. However, contrary to an opinion that is spread on TV sets, our fellow citizens do not like football any less (the proof: the stadiums have never been so full, the matches in the clear are followed), on the other hand they recognize themselves less and less in the spectacle that they are given to see on a daily basis. To recover, French football will have to win back hearts. Unless it's already too late.
Performing at club level, Kylian Mbappé is “looking forward” to returning to the French team
