We knew it. It was said and repeated. French professional rugby - especially its flagship Top 14 - has been living beyond its means for years. Indecent salaries to attract the best players on the planet, overpaid French hopes to respect the rule of Jiff (players from the training sector) and revenues that do not often cover expenses. Canal + may now pay nearly 100 million euros a year, these TV rights represent only 20% of revenues, far behind sponsorship and, a tone below, ticketing. In a word, the system is inflationary and this stopping of competition because of the coronavirus puts the clubs in a precarious situation. Those who rely on a real economy but also those who spent without counting thanks to generous patrons. Will they all resolve to pay even more to save their "dancer" from bankruptcy? And Castres or Clermont, which are backed by companies (the Fabre laboratories for the first, Michelin for the second), will they still be able to count on them in these times of crisis?
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The billionaire Mohed Altrad, who perfuses Montpellier, was very alarmist in the columns of L'Équipe: “I don't see any other economy more fragile and random than ours. The balance between income and expenditure is in deficit, and one cannot live forever at a loss. This crisis can therefore overwhelm us! He is not the only one to sound the alarm. Thomas Lombard, managing director of Stade Français Paris, who also relies on a "kind donor", the German businessman Hans Peter Wild, is no more optimistic. “The rugby business model is on the wane due to this crisis. We have probably gone too far and I include my club in this report. Today, the urgency is to know how the clubs will be able to survive… ”
77% salary increase
All the presidents of the Top 14 now say it in unison: rugby will have to tighten their belts and, for that, first seriously revise the wages of players. Be more reasonable and stop attracting stars with seven-figure annual contracts. Establish better supervised remuneration and real financial fair play. The numbers are cold in the back. In ten years, from 2008 to 2018, the "average gross payroll of players per club" is, according to the 2019 report of the DNACG, increased from 5.40 M € to 9.60 M €. Or, an increase of… 77% in a decade! Revenues (partnerships and + 25% for TV rights) also increased, but to a much lesser extent. As a result, last season player salaries accounted for more than half of the clubs' operating expenses.
The jolt is therefore telluric for the Top 14. "If we differentiate between the receipts and the costs for a home match, the net loss is between 300,000 and 800,000 euros per canceled match, entrusted to Le Figaro the president of Clermont, Éric de Cromières. In the case of ASM, we are in the 800,000 euros, multiplied by the five games where we were to receive. We can therefore count on 4 million euros in losses. To this will be added the probable reduction in partnerships.
"It's complicated to have a unique answer for a world that is puzzleised"
Eric de CromièresFirst consequence, the clubs have already put the hand brake on the transfer market. Very few recruitments (the only headliner, for now, is the Australian international Kurtley Beale, who signed to Racing for "only" 400,000 euros annually) and a very great caution on the extension of contracts in Classes.
Rugby will have to review its lifestyle. And it will not be so simple, according to Éric de Cromières. “In the Top 14, the economic models are not homogeneous. There are clubs that have a business model based on spectators drawn to the stadium, such as Toulouse, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Clermont. And then there are clubs which do not have the capacity to have an operating result in balance and whose budgets are supplemented by patrons: like Montpellier, the French Stadium, Racing, Lyon… It is complicated to have a unique answer for a world that is puzzleised. Clermont does not live beyond his means. Insofar as we arrive each year at the balance of the operating account while respecting the salary cap. And the Clermont leader to call for a strong measure. “There is no longer just a constraint in terms of salary cap, but also on the operating account. So that the solution does not consist any more, either the club is in debt, or the club has a patron. You have to ask Messrs. Altrad and Wild how much they have put in the pot since they arrived. We would be built up from the sum… ”Millions of euros sunk without return on investment.
Read also
- Eric de Cromières at Le Figaro: "If the Top 14 continues in wage inflation, it will be difficult ..."