It's time to pick up the copies: four investment funds interested in the new commercial subsidiary of French football, considered vital for clubs, submit their final offers on Wednesday detailing their project intended to make League TV rights more profitable 1. After a long selection process, the final examination is approaching for potential investors, ready to pay 1.5 billion euros, the amount desired by the Professional Football League (LFP), for a minority stake up to 20% of the capital.
Presented as the lifeline of French professional football and endorsed by the recent law on sport adopted in Parliament, the commercial company must make it possible to find a shareholder with solid backs and recognized expertise.
A guarantee of fresh money immediately available and of future development for the clubs of L1 and L2, exhausted by the failure of the former broadcaster Médiapro and the health crisis, with 600 million euros in dreaded net losses this season.
More than the amount provided, which should be substantially similar from one candidate to another, it is the content of the projects that should make the difference, according to two sources familiar with the process.
Namely the desired percentage of participation, the payment schedule, the proposed governance, the
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Of the ten initially candidate funds, four of them (Oaktree, CVC, Silver Lake and Hellman&Friedman) entered into direct negotiations with the LFP at the end of 2021, with the possibility of carrying out an in-depth audit before formulating their final proposal.
“
We hope to have four offers
,” a source at the heart of the discussions told AFP.
No decision taken before April
We should not a priori expect the designation of a winner on Wednesday: in this process by mutual agreement, this date rather marks the beginning of a period of analysis of the final offers, with possible "
great oral
“in front of the clubs and no decision before”
during April
“.
“
We are going to put ourselves under glass to take the time to study” the proposals
, we specify from the same source.
"
We do not exclude, for the best offers, to organize presentations by the candidates of their industrial and marketing project for French football
."
The LFP hopes to put the new structure in place at the end of the season, with the aim that the clubs have the sums promised this summer, or at least a timetable.
A distribution key, which remains to be fixed, should distinguish the locomotive of the championship (Paris SG), a handful of major teams, and the rest of the clubs.
Part of the windfall obtained will be devolved to the commercial company itself, to recruit specialists and develop its activity, another part to the Federation (FFF) and part to the LFP, to meet its debts and build up a cushion of security.
A system develops and promotes Ligue 1
In exchange, the minority shareholder will have representatives on the structure's board of directors and will be reimbursed from future revenue.
The growth projections are ambitious with the objective of doubling or tripling the turnover "
within a horizon of seven to ten years
", according to a source at the heart of the discussions.
For this, the idea is to use the amounts obtained in order to take care of the quality of the Ligue 1 product (lawns, infrastructures, innovations, etc.) and to approach the next cycle of TV rights which will begin in 2024. A margin of progress has already been identified: international TV rights, very undervalued compared to other European championships (around 80 million euros per year until 2024, against ten times more for the Spanish Liga , for example).
The objective of Vincent Labrune, president of the LFP, is clear: to create "
a virtuous cycle which would increase revenues on the European scene (linked to performances in European cups, editor's note) and international rights, which would allow us to keep our best talents, to recruit others, to have a better show and therefore a better audience and to relaunch the cycle of rights in a positive way
”, he explained in December during a hearing in the Senate.
