After hearing the main players in the Mediapro fiasco to try to understand how we had come to this, the deputy Cédric Roussel launched a few months ago in a vast consultation to make the economic model of French football more solid, and thus prevent a new catastrophe from shaking it hard. The president of the study group “Economy of sport” presented this Wednesday morning the conclusions of its work to the National Assembly.
“Thanks to the 60 hearings which enabled us to hear from nearly 150 people and to a citizen consultation which collected more than 8,000 contributions, we were able to conduct an overall reflection on the financing of sport through broadcasting rights”, he wrote in a press release, before detailing his proposals.
Consolidate and secure TV rights
The first are aimed at consolidating and securing TV rights. Among them, the main ones aim in particular to allow more flexibility in the duration of the marketing of rights, to authorize the creation of a commercial company by the LFP with a view to the exploitation and management of rights, and to set up a lot of one match in clear per day of the championship to support its exposure.
The study group also proposes the creation of a highlights package for the unencrypted broadcasting of match images, the creation of a streaming package in order to adapt to changing uses and broaden the subscriber base, a better financial guarantee and the payment of a deposit at the conclusion of the call for tenders, and finally the possibility for the LFP to oppose the sublicense of the rights.
Better regulation
The following proposals relate to the evolution of the economic model of clubs and better regulation of football, in particular via an extension of the duration of the first professional contract, a limitation of the wage bill and a ceiling of 25 players under contract. Without forgetting that the change would be even more effective if it came from a common will at European level.
“Either we defend a model based on competition law, as the Court of Justice of the EU does, or we defend the European sports model which is part of our European values. Today, we are in a middle ground, with distorted competition and misguided values, ”says Cédric Roussel.
About ten offers for the future commercial company
On Tuesday, the LFP announced that it had received a dozen offers from “leading financial investors, recognized in particular for their strong expertise in the field of sport, entertainment and digital”, for its commercial company project. The latter, carried by Vincent Labrune, should bring financial windfall to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs.
As Vincent Labrune explained last Saturday during the general assembly of the French Federation (FFF), the objective is to attract a “minority partner” within this subsidiary company of the LFP, in the short term to save the economy of football and in the medium term to be more competitive at European level. The LFP amended its statutes last June, paving the way for the creation of this structure. In March, the National Assembly adopted a bill validating the project, which must still be submitted to the Senate in early 2022, a priori in January.