With Baptiste Desprez
Clear, sharp, precise. After "two months of ambient cacophony" and a "competition of inventiveness and creativity" harmful for its image, with declarations and inventions for some bordering on the wacky, the Professional Football League (LFP) decided in the lively Thursday and put a final end to the 2019-20 season, based on the declarations of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, last Tuesday, at the National Assembly. “2019-20 is over. We are looking to 2020-21, ”insists Didier Quillot, director general of the LFP. "French football is going through an unprecedented crisis," emphasizes the president of the body, Nathalie Boy de la Tour. And we still have difficulties ahead of us. ” Which ones?
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Limit the financial
damage Sponsorship, ticketing, TV rights ... French clubs have seen their revenues drop since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Six clubs have already used the Guaranteed State Loan (PGE), including Laurent Nicollin's MHSC, but all are impatiently awaiting the first installments of the rich new TV rights (4.613 billion euros over four years) at the start of the next season. "I can last two, three, four months, but not indefinitely," warns the president of Montpellier, at Le Figaro . The blur is the other poison of this crisis, with little or no visibility on the continuation. Aggravating circumstance for Nice, Reims, Lyon and Saint-Etienne, suspended from the possible holding of the cup finals concerning their European future… "We are helped by partial unemployment, but from June, players will have to be given leave and we will find the full payroll, said, for Le Figaro , the president of Metz Bernard Serin. I do not think we are in danger, but we are a bit on a tightrope. We manage the cash to survive until we see clearly on the future of the economy. ” An economy that relies heavily, for many clubs, on the sales of their talents. "The added value of transfers will probably be in question mark until the end of the transfer window," fears Mr. Serin again. And the crisis could indeed encourage some to limit spending on the transfer market in the months, years to come ... "I don't believe in this famous" world after "and a total change in attitudes, corrects President Nicollin, specifically referring to L1. There will always be 14/15 clubs that will have budgets between 30 and 50M € and will not do anything crazy. Others will continue to race with shallots. ”
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Calendar, transfer window, ascent / descent… Decisions to be taken
The making of the 2020-21 calendar will be decided in May, just before or in the days following the General Assembly of 20. Knowing that it takes “ten good months” to establish a coherent program, says Mr. Quillot, with in particular the constraint of the Euro (June 11-July 11, 2021), the authorities are counting on a start to the season on the weekend of August 22 and 23 "at the latest" . A deadline. "If we can resume before and house the finals of the Coupe de la Ligue and the Coupe de France (early August), we will," added the DG of the League. It will also be necessary to define the dates of the transfer market, knowing that Paris and Lyon could play the Champions League in August. "Now, I see no reason why our transfer window should not start normally," swears Didier Quillot, on RMC . The transfer window question will be addressed at a next Board meeting. Finally, the modalities of ascents / descents between Ligue 2 and National 1 must still be defined during the GA of May 20.
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Rediscovering unity within the “big family” of football
“Very often we have found the ambient cacophony fairly indecent”, plagues Nathalie Boy de la Tour, the president acknowledging that “professional football does not come out of it growing up " It is true that the great family of French football has never seemed so cracked as in recent months ... "When you manage a League and club presidents, it is these people who hit the table. The cacophony is also done because everything does not follow in the upper echelons, "squeaks President Nicollin, seeing in Christmas Le Graët, president of the FFF," the strong man of French football ". Meanwhile, the peace of the households, it may not be for now, with several clubs who raise the threat of recourse, OL in mind. Moreover, Jean-Michel Aulas is not outdone in matters of bickering ... "I appeal to everyone's responsibility", launches the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracieanu, on RMC . Failed ... "Challenging the validity of the decisions of the authorities that you have installed yourself is quite bizarre," notes Bernard Serin, regretting that "special interests" sometimes took precedence over the collective interest. "If there are legal remedies, we risk not being paid the next TV rights, and that can trigger a new crisis," warns Laurent Nicollin, promising that he would have "closed (his) mouth" if he had been last in the ranking… Definitely, household peace will wait. Governance reform is a necessity.
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