On Tuesday local time, the French Professional Football League (LFP) issued a related statement, requesting the French government to provide emergency assistance to French professional football to prevent the large-scale bankruptcy of the club. The following is the full text of the statement.
Image source: LFP official website
After reaching an agreement with Canal+on broadcasting rights last Thursday, the LFP board of directors held a meeting today to evaluate the financial situation of professional teams in the 20-21 season.
In terms of total revenue, the two sides have reached a consensus on 759.1 million euros, which is far lower than the 1.307 billion euros budget made by the clubs at the beginning of this season. The loss of rebroadcast revenue far exceeded the prediction of Mikel, President of the French National Management and Control Office (DNCG).
Last December, he predicted that "French football will lose 800 million euros". But if you add the impact of open games, so far, these losses have exceeded 1 billion euros (excluding the impact of the transfer window).
Under such circumstances, unfortunately, the measures taken by the government in November last year proved to be invalid and could not make the activities of the industry sustainable. Especially, these measures did not take into account the fact that empty games would continue in 2021.
Therefore, the LFP hopes to hold an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Rehabilitation and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. At the same time, the senior management of the LFP and the clubs will work together to develop an emergency assistance plan.
After Mediapro terminated the contract, it is reasonable for the state to compensate for the loss of television transmission. In order to cope with the sharp decline in income, the club and players conducted salary negotiations. LFP prepared reform measures to ensure future development, and all parties have made great efforts. However, the state must help professional clubs and their shareholders overcome the crisis caused by the epidemic.
The survival of professional football industry is threatened. The most important thing is that we cannot let the cultural and economic heritage of professional football disappear today.
