PARIS (AP) — French league president Vincent Labrune was re-elected Tuesday to another four-year term with an overwhelming majority.
The league (LFP) said Labrune, who was formerly club president of nine-time French champion Marseille, received strong support from the board and was then elected by the general assembly in the first round of ballots with 85.67% percent of the votes.
“After a first mandate marked by emergency solutions and long-term responses to the unprecedented crisis in the financing of audiovisual rights, an era of transformation for professional soccer has now begun,” the league said in a statement."
The vote was expected to be tighter because Labrune had faced criticism in recent months over the handling of the league’s TV rights.
Following the collapse of its record-breaking TV rights contract with Spanish-based broadcaster Mediapro four years ago, the league hoped it could get up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) per year from the sale of broadcasting rights for 2024-29 but had to lower its target.
In the end, the league settled for 500 million euros per year after sealing a late deal with British streaming platform DAZN and BeIN Sports.
Under Labrune, the French soccer league also approved an investment deal with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners as part of a new commercial subsidiary in charge of marketing media rights. CVC invested 1.5 billion euros in return for a 13% stake in the new commercial subsidiary managing TV rights, valuing the entire capital of the commercial subsidiary at 11.5 billion euros.
The CVC deal, which was sealed in 2022 after French soccer came close of bankruptcy, is supported by a large majority of clubs. But it has been challenged by Le Havre, which launched a lawsuit against the French league because it is unhappy with the repartition of the money.
In addition, the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said this year it was assessing a complaint focusing on possible misappropriation of public funds when the LFP’s trading company was created following the partial transfer of capital to CVC.
The league said Tuesday it will now work on reducing the deficit of its clubs and enhancing the value of its competitions in partnership with broadcasters and CVC.
After the Mediapro collapse, the league was forced to ask the government to set up a financial rescue plan amid huge revenue losses exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The deal with Mediapro should have been worth more than 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion) over four years for the top two tiers but collapsed after only four months.
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FILE - Vincent Labrune, left, head of the French soccer league, and Jean-Michel Aulas, President of the Olympique Lyonnais soccer team, leave the French soccer federation, Jan. 11, 2023, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
