This Thursday, November 23, the general assembly of the Professional Football League (LFP) is decisive for the future of French football. On its agenda is a new vote to ratify the deal between the body and CVC, a Luxembourg investment fund. Deal which several clubs have started to seriously doubt in recent months. And that Le Havre has even decided to challenge in court.
In October, the LFP received two summons before the Paris judicial court. In the first, on the merits, the HAC calls into question the agreement with CVC. The second, in summary proceedings, requests the suspension of the CVC aid system, the last tranche of which must be paid to the clubs at the end of the current season. The oldest club considers itself wronged, having received 1.5 million euros when moving up to Ligue 1. It would have received double by remaining in Ligue 2. Worse, another promoted one, Metz, received 16, 5 million euros according to the conditions established during the negotiation of the distribution of CVC funds. “We are the cuckolds of history. It’s unacceptable for us, we are very angry,” said Jean-Michel Roussier, the president of Le Havre, in an interview with L’Équipe.
Faced with the actions of Le Havre, the LFP decided to bring forward the vote initially scheduled for December 7 to Thursday. It will be held by videoconference. “Visios are all well and good, but at some point, enough is enough,” says Olivier Delcourt, president of Dijon, to So Foot. There are important subjects for the future of French football which require us to meet face-to-face, to talk about them together. The objective of the body chaired by Vincent Labrune? Legally secure the deal, while the HAC denounces irregularities in the decision of April 2022, at the time of entry into force.
At that time, it was voted unanimously, with the exception of Nancy and Toulouse who abstained. The 1.5 billion euros promised by CVC in exchange for 13% of the capital and 13% commission on the “restated net income” of the LFP commercial company represented a welcome jackpot. The clubs were keen to replenish the coffers after the Mediapro fiasco and the pandemic. An agreement in the form of an infusion, carried out with haste. The clubs are starting to regret it.
Because there are many questions. First, the deal is much less advantageous than the one signed by La Liga. The Spaniards negotiated 2 billion for 8%, with the exception of the rights of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic Club. Above all, the agreement runs for 50 years, when the French deal is valid “for life”. Then, the clubs denounce an unfair redistribution of funds, with a huge gap between the eight clubs likely to play in Europe and the rest. PSG takes the lion’s share with 200 million euros. Followed by OM and OL with 90 million, then Lille, Monaco, Rennes and Nice with 80 million. The other elite teams pocket 33 million euros each.
Finally, clubs in France are starting to open their eyes to the nature of the “restated net income” on which CVC takes a commission. The calculation actually represents 90% of the LFP’s revenue and therefore has a direct impact on the rights redistributed to clubs. A KPMG study carried out on behalf of Le Havre AC reveals that a Ligue 1 club is deprived of 9.6 million euros per year on average over the first 50 years of the contract.
The figure reaches almost 10 million per year over a period of 99 years. “I think most presidents were not aware that this was a regular deduction. This is not quite the same thing as dividends linked to stocks that you own. There was undoubtedly an ambiguity about that, confides Pierre Ferracci, president of Paris FC, to So Foot. And then some perhaps had not integrated the fact that it was a part of capital of this importance.” A very late awakening.