The president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, proposed the “French version of the Premier League” Monday.
The country’s top flight, Ligue 1, falls under the jurisdiction of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP). The LFP has been in a financial tailspin in recent years, with Ligue 1 falling behind the continent’s other major leagues in revenue and losing its domestic streaming deal with DAZN in April. Diallo set up three groups in March to help decide the future of French football.
Under the proposed system, the federation would still get final say over the leagues, but the new structure would run the domestic leagues, including organizing and marketing matches. A CEO reporting to a board would run the show instead of the current elected president: “We’re moving from a non-profit association model to a commercial structure,” Diallo said at a press conference. These changes would scrap not only the LFP but also Ligue 1, he said.
The major difference in Diallo’s proposal would be that the new structure is club-owned. The clubs would each have one vote, and the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and the federation would also have a stake. CVC invested roughly $1.7 billion in Ligue 1’s commercial and broadcasting arm, LFP Media, in 2022.
“With the creation of LFP Media, the LFP has become almost an empty shell,” Diallo said. “This proposal would see the LFP disappear as its functions are absorbed by the new company.”
The French Senate is slated to discuss a bill concerning how the country’s professional sports are governed on June 10. Then it would move to the National Assembly to get final approval in the fall.
Ligue 1 has fallen behind the other Top Five European leagues: the Premier League, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and LaLiga. In the 2022–23 season, Deloitte found the Premier League led the group with $7.43 billion in revenue, compared to just $2.53 billion for fifth-place Ligue 1.
The faltering media situation has not helped. Amazon Prime and Canal+ did not stay on after three seasons as media partners. Ligue 1 didn’t have any deal for the 2024–25 season before DAZN and the LFP struck their now-defunct agreement in August for roughly $455 million annually. The league also gets about $130 million each year from Qatari service beIN. Again compared to the Premier League, media deals bring in roughly more than $2.2 billion per year for the British counterpart.
