Football. Law to reform French football: Can the LFP disappear?

The time for debate has finally come. After several months of work through a commission of inquiry , Senators Laurent Lafon (UDI) and Michel Savin (LR) are submitting a bill to the upper house on Tuesday to reform French football . Between the dysfunctions in its governance and the successive failures regarding its TV rights, it risks being put through the wringer.

The main premise is clear: more, if not more, oversight is needed around the Professional Football League (LFP) and its clubs. The law would thus give the French Football Federation (FFF) the ability to withdraw the subdelegation granted to the League in the event of failures in its role and obligations. The measure has sparked significant backlash within the LFP and within the other leagues, which have welcomed it as a "right of life or death" granted to the federations... In response to these fears, the system has been weakened in committee in recent days, with numerous adjustments added, such as a "prior opinion from the Minister of Sports" and a "six-month notice period."

But there is another measure that risks inflaming the debate: the possibility for the FFF to create a company associating professional clubs, and which would have the aim of replacing the LFP based on the model of the English Premier League, where the twenty member clubs are shareholders.

This company would therefore have control over its audiovisual exploitation rights, at a time when the idea of ​​a channel created by French football to take over from DAZN is germinating. "This will allow all the clubs, the Federation and the commercial partner (the CVC investment fund) to work together on how to improve the product and the image of football," says Isère senator Michel Savin, rapporteur of the PPL. "This is in the interest of all clubs, and in particular the smaller ones. They must be actors, stakeholders, to also promote their territories."

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However, Ligue 1 clubs would like to see the creation of two companies, one for the elite clubs and another for Ligue 2, arguing that the stakes are not the same for the two championships. The proposed law provides for the creation of a single company, but with shareholders having different rights depending on whether they are in Ligue 1 or Ligue 2, which is likely to make several club presidents grind their teeth. By the time the bill passes through the National Assembly, likely not before next autumn, they will have time to activate their political contacts to revise a reform that promises to bring lasting change to French football.