Having been largely re-elected on Tuesday for four years as president of the Professional Football League (LFP), Vincent Labrune faces several challenges to launch his second term, starting with the upheavals linked to the allocation of Ligue 1 TV rights to the DAZN platform.
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” There are two things that I experience as a fairly strong personal failure: the amount of our Ligue 1 call for tenders; but what I experienced the worst was my absolute ambition to favor a single distributor to lower prices. “, Labrune regretted during the press conference following his re-election for four years at the head of the Professional Football League. On the front line in the sensitive issue of the allocation of TV rights, the former president of OM did not manage to obtain a billion euros per year as he announced he hoped and finally sold the retransmission of Ligue 1 to DAZN and beIN Sports for 500 million euros. A setback for him, a disaster for certain clubs who derive most of their income from these rights.
Aware that football ” can no longer live on TV rights revenue alone “, Labrune called a meeting for Wednesday morning between the Ligue 1 college and the broadcaster DAZN” to see how to accelerate their success and push hard in the fight against piracy “, he explained. Keen to maximize the value of “ the Ligue 1 product ” and thus encourage supporters to subscribe to DAZN, the president of the body made piracy, which has exploded since the start of the season because of the prohibitive price offered by DAZN for its offer, a ” absolute priority in the very short term “.
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” We will tackle piracy fearlessly on all fronts: media, political and legal. “, he added. Piracy is like stealing an old lady’s bag in a market. Here, we find it normal for media to explain how an IPTV works “. Labrune thus welcomed the promotion launched on Tuesday by the British platform and valid from September 10 to 22, which reduces the subscription price from 29.99 to 19.99 euros per month.
Governance reform and salary cuts
During his first term, Labrune had the merit of recentralizing power at the head of the body, diluted with the previous team between the president Nathalie Boy de la Tour and the executive general director Didier Quillot. Too much perhaps, even if he formed a complementary tandem with his general director, Arnaud Rouger. It is a wish of all the club presidents, sitting on the new Board of Directors, that also of Philippe Diallo, the president of the Federation who spoke at the elective General Assembly on Tuesday, assuring Labrune and the League of his support, but urging them to review their governance and their economic model.
A message heard: “ We need to reinvent ourselves, we need to reinvent football. ” assured Labrune. ” There will be a plan to save on charges, to increase the distribution base of rights to clubs. The president of the LFP will have to set an example by making significant gestures with a reduction in remuneration “. Strengthening the weight of clubs in governance, promoting the football product, creating a strategic committee in the commercial subsidiary of the LFP… these are the avenues mentioned by the boss of the League, in addition to the announcement of the reduction of his salary (1.2 million euros per year), a question which crystallized some tensions. Without specifying in what proportions.