France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel has agreed to a deal with CVC Capital Partners.
The agreement is reportedly for a 13% stake in the company that will facilitate a media rights sale — an allocation worth $1.6 billion — that would bring LFP’s commercial arm valuation up to $12.6 billion.
In meetings last week, both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 approved a financial distribution system. Though the French governing body didn’t reveal terms, L’Equipe and RMC Sport reported LFP will receive $658 million by July, and that clubs will be split into three distribution tiers:
- Paris Saint-Germain will receive the largest cut of the investment at about $200 million.
- Lyon and Marseille will each get slightly under $100 million, while several other clubs, including Nice and Monaco, will receive about $87.7 million.
- A third tier of clubs will get about $36 million each.
The news comes just a week after exclusive talks between LFP and CVC Capital Partners were reported.
A Similar Deal
This isn’t the first time the private equity firm has dipped into European soccer — it also previously inked a deal with La Liga for $2.3 billion.
Three individual teams didn’t react as positively to the news as those in LFP, however. They filed a lawsuit soon after, which remains ongoing.
