Paris (AFP)

Limit financial losses, build a team to play or not Europe, successfully launch Mediapro and reform its governance: Ligue 1 must solve several complex equations for next season.

. Fix a recovery, Europe in the lead

As soon as the 2019-20 page is turned, the Professional Football League (LFP) planned on Thursday to start the following exercise "August 22 and 23, at the latest". "If the government allows us to replay, including behind closed doors, we will examine the possibility of playing the finals of the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France in early August, in conjunction with the Federation and UEFA," added the managing director Didier Quillot.

Whether or not playing these finals will indeed determine the future of French clubs in the Europa League. As it stands, tickets for the C3 are in the hands of Nice (5th) and Reims (6th). But they could escape them in favor of Saint-Etienne, if the Greens won the Coupe de France, or of Lyon, if OL won the Coupe de la Ligue. "The difficulty for Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Reims and Nice is that if it goes as planned, we will find ourselves having to wait until the last moment to know whether we are playing Europe or not. budget, transfer window ... it's not easy, "commented Nice President Jean-Pierre Rivère.

. Take care of club finances

Between the stop of the L1 in mid-March and the recovery hoped for in August, the clubs will have revenue cut partially (TV rights) or totally (ticketing), and salary or operating costs still very high. "Six months without revenue, how do we do it? Like tourism or air travel we are a disaster sector," an L1 president told AFP this week.

This leader hoped an extension of partial unemployment for clubs and the conclusion of wage agreements with the players, while negotiations on a cut in wages skid in France. "If the TV rights for the season were not to be paid in full (by the broadcasters Canal and BeIN, editor's note), we would have to go further," we slip from OM.

The president of Montpellier is more serene. "With equity and a loan, we will arrive until August. If at that time, we do not have the contribution of Mediapro, it will be a little more complicated," explained Tuesday to AFP Laurent Nicollin.

. Successful beginnings of Mediapro

It was the obsession of many French football players in recent days: bury the 2019-20 season as quickly as possible and focus on the next, the starting point for the new TV rights cycle (2020-2024), surpassing for the the first billion euros annually. "We know that Mediapro will be the new broadcaster from next season. We are not going to be hara-kiri twice. The season is dead, it is dead. Otherwise, it would be double trouble," summed up Nicollin.

Newcomer to France, the Spanish audiovisual group has repeated its wish to launch its channel this summer and to honor its first payments, despite the health and calendar uncertainties. "We had a meeting between the League and certain presidents. We agreed on the future (...) but we will remain on the same parameters depending on the day when the championship begins", assured Jaume Roures , the boss of Mediapro, in a recent interview with AFP. "It will not change the agreement we have," he continued.

. Reform the governance of the League

The reform of the governance of the LFP, the organizer of the first and second division professional championships, was already launched before the pandemic. The last few weeks, agitated behind the scenes, have made it more urgent. "I think that the governance of the League has lived with this crisis," thundered OL president Jean-Michel Aulas on Thursday in an interview with AFP and the regional newspaper Le Progrès. "The governance in this episode was debatable, almost all the presidents think so," he insisted, referring to "ill-bordered decisions".

Certain faults have also been admitted by Nathalie Boy de la Tour. Governance, which she shares with Didier Quillot, "is not today at its best", recognized the president of the League, who wishes it "more collected" in the future. "We need to simplify our statutes. This is work that must be done," concluded the one whose current mandate runs until November 2020.

© 2020 AFP