How Emmanuel Macron decided to stop Ligue 1

This Thursday at 2 p.m., the Council of State, the highest administrative court in the country, examines the appeals of Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse. These three clubs ask to suspend the decision of the Professional Football League (LFP) to stop the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 championships ten days before the end. It is a summary hearing. The decision will be taken under advisement and made public between June 10 and 12.

The end of the season is the big deal that has been agitating French football since mid-March. On April 28, Edouard Philippe announced before the deputies: “The 2019-2020 season of professional sports, especially that of football, will not be able to resume. On April 30, the LFP closed the L1 and the L2 by validating a classification which sent Amiens and Toulouse to the lower division and did not allow Lyon to be European, with its 7th place.

The Prime Minister's little phrase does not come out of the blue. While the former mayor of Le Havre hesitated and the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, was convinced of the danger of resuming, in particular on the basis of the arguments of the players' union (UNFP) and of a health doctrine which would have led to a special regime for athletes, it is the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who decided to end the season.

Firstly for obvious health reasons and faced with actors who demanded visibility from the executive, and therefore to know from the first announcement the conditions for deconfinement. The head of state also decided after consulting mainly four people who embody in his eyes the three main families of football: football from below, the professional sector and internationals. By putting in place public aid - partial unemployment, loan guaranteed by the State -, Macron estimates having helped the sector to economically complete this truncated exercise.

Ferracci lobbying

Pierre Ferracci presides over Paris FC, narrowly saved this season in Ligue 2. He is also the father of Marc Ferracci, economist and witness to the marriage of Emmanuel Macron, also witness to the marriage of the union between Marc and Sophie. The latter occupied the post of director of cabinet of Emmanuel Macron Minister of Economy of François Hollande. That is to say if Pierre Ferracci is an intimate of the Head of State. The two men are often called and don't just talk about football.

Since the start of the health crisis, Ferracci has multiplied calls to the Elysée to end the championship, a position very shared by his L2 counterparts and of which he has made himself the spokesperson. Questioned by Le Parisien on May 19, Ferracci refuted this lobbying, also denied by the Palais de l'Elysée, joined this Wednesday. "Everyone is free to stir up these fantasies to make people forget the inappropriate pressure exerted by some on the Minister of Sports and the government, using arguments on the financial (with eccentric figures) and health which have greatly contributed to discredit a recovery solution, explained the president of the PFC. My position has always been clear and public. From the start, I had asked to study the hypothesis of a permanent halt, which unfortunately was not done. And, at the end, I pleaded for a stop because the sanitary conditions were not met. "

The weight of Deschamps, Le Graët's insistence

The coach was also polled by the Head of State, who knows and the weight of world champions in the hearts of the French, and that of Didier Deschamps in all past and recent successes. "It is a decision of the government, which seems coherent and wise to me. You have to accept it, "said the national coach on May 26 at the Parisian.

Concerned about the health of the players, their infernal pace, the breakage which he is often confronted with when building his lists to compete in a World Cup or a Euro, Deschamps considered it wiser that a part of his troop does not chain two seasons back to back for those who will resume and for whom the risk of injury is very high. Obviously, its contingent does not come mainly from Ligue 1, but limiting the risks for a Kylian Mbappé or a few potential replacements (Mandanda, Kimpembe, Dubois, Ben Yedder among others) can count at the time of competing in Euro 2021 for a coach who places people at the heart of his sporting project.

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At the same time, Noël Le Graët, the president of the Federation, has made multiple calls to the Elysée Palace and the Ministry of Sports to request the end of the season. On April 16, twelve days before the announcement of Edouard Philippe, the FFF ended its competitions and the body campaigned for a parallelism between pros and amateurs. On April 28, hardly the speech of the Prime Minister finished, Le Graët telephones to the "Telegram" and announces that the L1 is finished and that there will be two descents.

Eyraud, the last blade

Fan of OM and the popularity of the club in France, Macron will also exchange during this health crisis with Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the president of OM, more and more keen on politics. With losses estimated at 127 million euros, Eyraud sees the qualification for the Champions League an unexpected windfall after the successful season of his club. The leader will campaign with the President of the Republic, no doubt already convinced, to stop the championship. The Elysée also denies this interview.

Eyraud represents the big clubs. Which all prefer, to choose, to start the 2020-2021 season in the best conditions and as soon as possible, than to finish the current one. France is the only country where television rights increase so considerably next season thanks to the arrival of the new operator Mediapro and its chain Telefoot. A real explosion even, with + 54% of retransmission receipts which will moreover make it possible to cover current and future losses.

UEFA has not set a deadline to end the current season. The body simply recommended that the domestic competitions be completed on August 3. The League and the clubs did not push, in their different recovery scenarios, to play beyond August 3, especially not wanting to endanger the start of the next season, capital in more ways than one.