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Will Mr Nice transform French football?

  • September 16, 2019

Ineos, an energy group run by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, recently bought French Ligue 1 club Nice from its previous Chinese-US owners in a deal worth between €100 million and €120 million ($115 and $128 million).

The final price would be more than the €79 million spent by the Qatar royal family to buy Paris Saint-Germain in July 2011 or the €45 million paid by US businessman Frank McCourt for the acquisition of Marseille in September 2016.

Among Ratcliffe’s other sports ventures are Swiss football club Lausanne Sport and the Team Ineos cycling team, which was formerly Team Sky.

“We analyzed a number of clubs, in line with our business vision at Ineos – in terms of value and potential – and Nice corresponds with those criteria,” Ratcliffe said. “We have made some mistakes with Lausanne, but we learn quickly, these were rectified and we are already seeing the results.”

Ratcliffe said he wants to establish Nice as a team that competes in European club competition on a regular basis, “and importantly, sustain it.”

But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, observers say. After more than 60 years since being a key founding member of European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, French club football has very rarely been anything but marginal. So, will this change?

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Outstanding playmaker

    With his deft feet, immense footballing brain and a developed nose for goal, Michel Platini was established as one of the world’s best by the early 1980s, at the latest. After stints with Nancy and St. Etienne in Ligue 1, he moved to Juventus in 1982 and became a genuine global star. Playing for “the Old Lady,” he won the league title twice and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1984.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    National hero

    Platini also reveled in international glory. As the right hand to his coach Michel Hidalgo, he orchestrated play for France and led them to victory on home soil in the 1984 European Championships. In the final against Spain, Platini scored the game’s only goal with a free kick. La Grande Nation celebrated its newest hero, who would later be crowned European sportsman of the year.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Difficult times in the dugout

    A little like Franz Beckenbauer, Platini took charge of the national team as a coach soon after the end of his playing career. He was just 33. But he struggled to emulate his success on pitch from the sidelines. He failed to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. After that, his France team went on to record 19 unbeaten games, only to drop out early at the 1992 European Championships. Platini then quit.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Master of ceremonies

    A year later, Platini moved on to his next grand task, organizing the 1998 World Cup in France. Then 38, this marked the beginning of a meteoric rise to the top as a football functionary. The party proved a success, as hosts France won fueled by their next inspired number 10: Zinedine Zidane. Meanwhile, Platini struck a key alliance with Sepp Blatter in his 1998 bid to become FIFA president.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Atop another European summit

    By 2007, Platini hit the big time in European functionary terms. In January, he won the vote to become UEFA president, dethroning incumbent Lennart Johansson. Platini won his core support from smaller, primarily eastern European federations. He went on to secure automatic Champions League berths for “smaller” teams, also expanding the European Championship — from 16 to 24 participating countries.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Pupil, protege, and partner in crime?

    Platini later announced his intent to succeed Sepp Blatter as the president of FIFA. But this handover from patron to protege never came to pass. Both Platini and Blatter were suspended from FIFA ahead of the unscheduled 2016 vote. The reason? An ominous payment of €1.8 million from Blatter to Platini, nominally for consultancy work. Instead of Platini, Gianni Infantino took the reins of FIFA.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    Frozen out

    Platini fights the allegations of corruption but with limited success. Even his appeal at the Court of Arbitration of Sport is unsuccessful. FIFA’s ethics commission banned Platini from the group for eight years in December of 2015. The court found that while Blatter’s payment to Platini could not be called corruption, it did also lack a legal basis. His suspension was later reduced to four years.

  • Michel Platini: French football’s playmaker turned politician

    The definitive end?

    Platini’s ban from all football activities expires later this year. But now he has been questioned in connection with Qatar winning hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup. Does that mark the end for his FIFA career? His lawyer certainly doesn’t see it that way: “He has done absolutely nothing wrong and affirms that he is totally unrelated to the facts [of the case], which are unknown to him.”

    Author: Andreas Sten-Ziemons


France feet first

France is showing signs that it could be the next football market that investors target. Other transactions of French clubs in recent months include Bordeaux (€95 million) and Lille (€80 million).

French football executives believe with the right investors, Ligue 1 can compete with the Premier League, the world’s most valuable league. With a comparatively low cost of entry compared to England, Germany and Italy, French football has a chance to do this, they believe.

“Thanks to Euro 2016, we have 16 stadiums with over 30,000 seats, including eight of over 40,000 seats,” CEO of French football’s governing body (LFP), Didier Quillot, said in an interview with SBD Global. 

“Of the top 10 academies in the world, five are French: Lyon, Rennes, Bordeaux, Paris St. Germain and Toulouse. France is the best player production factory in the world,” he said.

Ligue 1 currently ranks fifth in Europe’s “big five” leagues in revenue, behind the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A, according to Deloitte. “There is room for progression. There is no reason why, in the next two or three years, the league cannot become number two in Europe,” Quillot went on. 

Supporters on the Champs-Elysees avenueon July 16, 2018 waiting for the national team for after France won the Russia 2018 World Cup

Stepping up

The first legal statutes restricted foreign investors in French football, compelling clubs to hold a minimum 33% participation in their private companies, protected French football from foreign investors for a long time until the start of the 2000s, Aurelien Francois, lecturer in sport economics at Rouen University in France, told DW.

“But French football clubs have progressively adopted more ‘liberal’ statutes introduced into French law since then,” Francois said.

Today, all French clubs have structured themselves in SASP “Societe Anonyme Sportive Professionnelle” or SAS “Societe par Actions Simplifiees,” which have no restrictions in terms of foreign investments. 

“I would say that there are, in reality, no more strong restrictions in the French football business,” Francois said. “If a club’s owner wants to sell his club, he needs an agreement of the majority of the shareholders on one side, but in plenty of cases, the owner has more than 50% of the club’s capital.”

President Emmanuel Macron and team coach Didier Deschamps after victory in the 2018 Russia Soccer World Cup

Following Italy and England, not Spain and Germany

“I would say that the French football business is quite close to the Italian case, and in a lesser extent, to the UK case,” Francois says. “Indeed, the French model seems to be entrenched in a liberal logic due to the new rules and legislation, which has opened the way for foreign investments.”

In this sense, the French model is very different from the German and Spanish model, Francois adds. 

I

In the Bundesliga, there is the 50+1 rule stating that, in order to participate to national competitions, a not-for-profit club must hold the majority of its private company. As a consequence, this rule hinders the capital shareholding by foreign investors. 

In the Spanish model there is no rule obliging foreign investors, like hedge funds to take part in the club’s capital. 

The governance model of the most prestigious clubs, such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, and to a lesser extent, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna, makes the entry of foreign investors impossible. Indeed, they are governed by an assembly of “Socios” who hold the voting rights of their clubs.

More on the cards?

“Given the fact that football business is continuously in deficit, I would say that all club’s owners are potentially sellers,” Francois says. 

Potentially take overs in the next few years are thus expected. Saint Etienne and Nantes have been close to finding foreign investors. Waldemar Kita, the owner of Nantes, this year started discussions with a hedge fund about the taking over of the club, though  negotiations have been halted.

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/will-mr-nice-transform-french-football/a-50361836?maca=en-rss-en-bus-2091-xml-atom

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