Paris (AFP)
"This is not the right time" to consider a Ligue 1 with 18 clubs, said in an interview with L'Équipe the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) Noël Le Graët, in response to the idea launched by his Ligue counterpart Vincent Labrune.
"It cannot be done right away. It is not the right time," reacted Mr. Le Graët.
"It would be necessary to carry out a financial study, to question the television channels. That still makes matches in less. One cannot say like that: + I throw a coin in the air and, according to the side where it falls, c 'is yes or no. + It can make a mess with TVs, "he explains, while the TV rights contracts run until 2024.
The boss of the LFP, Vincent Labrune, said he wanted "to open a debate on the number of clubs participating in the L1 and L2".
"We must redesign the format of our competitions. It is mandatory, otherwise we will die of boredom in terms of entertainment and exhaustion in terms of investments", judges the former president of Marseille in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche .
But Noël Le Graët recalls that "the calls for tender were made with 20 clubs".
"At the television level, we do not really know who is broadcasting us ... Are the television channels ready to broadcast fewer matches and at what price?" He wonders.
"The moment is not necessarily the best chosen. There is the Covid, TV contracts with 20 clubs ... It does not happen like that. If it has to be done, it is preparing for a future call for offers ", insists the boss of the FFF.
Then president of the League, Noël Le Graët had already tested this formula of a narrow elite in 1997. But for the current president of the FFF, "it deserves further reflection".
“In the past, we have often talked about a return to 18 in L1. This has never succeeded because the resistance of the clubs was too strong. You are asking two more clubs to go down to Ligue 2 ... a few weeks away, when we were in difficulty, some wanted to play at 22 ... ", adds Le Graët.
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