Paris (AFP)
Undermined by disagreements, often inaudible and plagued by administrative slowness, French professional football is emerging from the coronavirus crisis loaded with questions and convinced that an overhaul of its governance is urgent. Reform projects are emerging, raising hopes but also concerns.
Governance was to be the watchword of the year 2020 in football, with a reform hoped for by the renewal of the leaders of the League (LFP), a priori planned for November.
But the pandemic has disrupted the calendar, stirred up egos and rekindled power struggles, between passing arms over the end of the season and recourse to the courts. Above all, it made certain faults glaring.
"You have 40 bosses, different interests and a communication system where everyone gives their opinion. What we have experienced in recent times has shown these dysfunctions. We had the climax of everything we would not have wanted to show ", points Jean-Pierre Caillot, president of Reims.
"We cannot continue on a governance of this type, where we are not listened to, because in the end we pay the bill", adds Bernard Caïazzo, the president of Premier League, the union of clubs of Ligue 1.
- Simplify ... -
How to reform the authorities? One concept keeps coming up: "simplification".
The puzzle is real: for several decisions in recent weeks, it was necessary to successively bring together the College of clubs of L1, that of L2, the Bureau of the League, its Board of Directors, its Assembly, the Executive Committee of the Federation and the Assembly thereof. On the distribution of TV rights between L1 and L2, an additional conciliation group had to be created! And this, without counting certain legal remedies that rewound the process to zero ...
"We can see that there are too many round trips to reach the same decisions. The lawyers are very happy, but I think that we will have to think about a system allowing to be more coherent and shorter", notes Noël Le Graët, the president of the FFF, who admits that he often had to "try to calm" certain positions.
During the whole of 2019, the League, clubs and families (players' representatives, coaches, etc.) had already started the great reflection.
- ... without wrinkling -
Several tracks had been adopted by the clubs in December, and proposed to the authorities, according to different actors: a reform of the mode of designation of the representatives of the clubs to the Board of directors of the League - "the L1 decides for the L1, the L2 for L2 ", explains a leader -, the end of the dispersal of powers between the President of the League (Nathalie Boy de la Tour) and its Executive Director General (Didier Quillot) with a single CEO, and the reduction in the number of members of the Board of Directors, considered "not very agile" in its current format to 25 directors.
If these proposals seem to convince a good number of leaders, this last point nevertheless creaks on the side of families.
"Simplify by saying that we have to dismiss families because it is too crowded, it is not possible," insists Raymond Domenech, president of Unecatef, the coaches' union. "The families have never prevented the clubs from making their decisions. It is a false debate which wants to hide the rivalries between clubs, which make the League incapable of speaking with a common voice".
- A commercial company? -
Some leaders like in Lyon, Paris or Saint-Etienne even want to go further and create a commercial company administered by the twenty Ligue 1 clubs, which would manage all the economic activities of pro football, such as the marketing of TV rights, leaving the sovereign party charged to the Federation.
"This would give credibility to the clubs, which make the economy of football," supports a leader favorable to this English system.
"Another model, German, would rather involve the creation of a branch of the League. This would currently be possible in law, unlike the English model," says a source close to the authorities.
If Noël Le Graët said a priori "not opposed" to this proposal, reluctance exists in the two divisions.
An important player in the L2 worries: "There is an idea, but no background. We feel that there is a desire on the part of certain large clubs to create chaos so that they can say + it does not work +".
"Those who call for reform with a view to a commercial company are often those who cannot reach agreement," continues another source close to the authorities.
"Why not?" Hesitates Jean-Pierre Caillot. "But the League must not become the monopoly of three or four behemoths who explain to us that they are the ones who make football, because it is not true".
© 2020 AFP