350 million euros. This is the economic loss that professional football clubs will accuse after the announcement Tuesday by Edouard Philippe of the end of the 2019-2020 season when the presentation of his deconfinement plan before the National Assembly. While all the clubs are concerned, some wish to take the opportunity to review the economic model.
A considerable shortfall
Ten matches of the season not disputed, it is as many juicy TV rights which do not enter the boxes of the clubs, not to mention the ticket office and various receipts. Take the example of PSG: the leader of Ligue 1 expects a shortfall of 215 million euros, or a third of its annual budget, while it must continue to provide its expenses, including salaries of players. For Dijon, the shortfall represents almost half of its operating budget.
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Long-term impact?
Thanks to loans guaranteed by the state, professional clubs should last a few months. But the real danger is for the coming seasons, with clubs that simply risk bankruptcy. "We will have to make combat budgets, war budgets on television rights, we may no longer reach the heights we have reached in recent years", predicted on Europe 1 Pierre Feracci, the president of Paris FC, Ligue 2 club.
According to him, the impact will be lasting on French football. "The ticketing may be a little less satisfactory because the supporters will not return to the stadium as easily as that, (...) clubs which will find themselves in difficulty", he judges.
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"Radical adaptation of the football model"
Adapt or disappear, this is a discourse we hear a lot in Ligue 2, and even in Ligue 1, in Rennes or Saint-Etienne for example. More and more clubs are pleading for a return to reason, with a reinforced framework of expenses and why by a salary limit.
"There may be pharaonic remunerations that will be called into question if there is not a radical adaptation of the football model," predicts Pierre Feracci. This imposed austerity cure in any case causes the start of an existential crisis in football business.