Olympique Lyonnais is the latest… Jean-Michel Aulas’s club finally came under the American flag this summer. It is the billionaire John Textor who takes control of 66% of the shares of one of the most successful clubs in France. An operation in 800 million according to Forbes.
With the likely takeover of the Angers club – also by an American fund – Ligue 1 could have 11 foreign-owned clubs. Lille OSC, Clermont Foot, OGC Nice… French clubs have been reselling strongly in recent years.
How to explain such attractiveness? The low entry ticket compared to other European championships is part of the explanation. France, the second country that exports the most players, has all the good opportunities. Because it is the prospect of a capital gain on resale that can motivate homeowners. At this level, the Football League (LFP) and CVC – the fund that invested in his trading company – are bullish on French football. In particular, they believe that television rights will increase in the coming years.
Change model?
It must also be said that the clubs have suffered a lot from the pandemic but also from the Mediapro fiasco with a drop in television rights that will have to be renegotiated this year. Is Ligue 1 worth more than a billion euros as the LFP thought? “We have to wait a bit for what the market will reveal to us,” Luc Arrondel, director of research at the CNRS and specialist in football economics, tempers about BFM Business.
This year will therefore be crucial to relaunch the machinery and hope to increase the value of the championship. Provided that it is an attractive league, from a sporting point of view. “If you have a league that ensures its financial balance solely through the sale of its best players, that hurts the point of sale a bit,” underlines Luc Arrondel.
Source: BFM TV
