Ligue 1: "The clubs are financially drained", alarms the boss of the DNCG

"The clubs are financially drained, we are on the bone", alarms Jean-Marc Mickeler, the president of the financial policeman of French football (DNCG), in an interview published Thursday in

where he does not rule out possible bankruptcy without "immediate" reform.

At the head of the National Management Control Department, the auditor affirms that French professional clubs have lost 700 million euros in revenue in two seasons (400 million in television rights and 300 million in transfers), to which add losses related to the lack of ticketing revenue and sponsorship.

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"Before transfers, we are on an operating loss of 1.4 billion euros" at the end of the 2020/21 season, against 1.2 billion euros the previous season, he said.

And the strong man of the DNCG to evoke a debt which "flew" until reaching "more than 1 billion today", equity "divided by four in two years" and a persistent uncertainty on the 330 million euros that Canal + is reluctant to pay to broadcast only two Ligue 1 matches per day.

Reforms needed

"Without proactive, courageous and immediate reform, there is no way out beyond the coming season," warns Jean-Marc Mickeler. "If France were to face a fourth wave of Covid with zero gauge, if the € 330 million were not to be met, we could not exclude bankruptcy filings over the 2021-2022 season. But this does not happen. is not the central scenario, ”he asserted.

For Jean-Marc Mickeler, it is advisable to be "extremely courageous on the reform of the existing model", in particular by reducing the wage bill of the clubs and by supervising it (via a "salary cap", that is to say a maximum total envelope), by limiting the number of players under contract to 25, excluding those trained at the club, and by reforming the use of loans "in order to avoid circumvention measures".