The French Football Federation (FFF) has unveiled plans to revamp the domestic soccer governance structure and replicate the English Premier League model, with a club-owned entity replacing the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) league body.
The proposal, announced by FFF president Philippe Diallo on Monday (May 12), would see French clubs and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners become shareholders in a newly created company responsible for managing and marketing professional competitions, with the FFF also holding a stake.
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CVC already owns a 13% stake in LFP Media, a commercial subsidiary that handles media rights for the top-tier Ligue 1.
The FFF’s plan stems from the work of three task forces launched in early March, and has been unveiled with French soccer facing mounting financial challenges.
Diallo has said: “This would be a French version of the Premier League – a club-owned company with paid executives running the league. This is an innovative and disruptive project compared to the current organization of professional football.
“It aims to lay the foundation for a rebound of our professional clubs within a more efficient and transparent framework, with a renewed role for the federation.”
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By GlobalDataDiallo emphasized the need to simplify the current governance structure, which includes the FFF, the LFP, and LFP Media.
He added: “With the creation of LFP Media, the LFP has become almost an empty shell. This proposal would see the LFP disappear as its functions are absorbed by the new company.”
The new structure would be responsible for organizing and promoting the domestic leagues, while the FFF would retain a key oversight role, including veto power over competition format changes.
Diallo stated: “This project will require legislative changes.”
A bill addressing the governance of professional sports in France is set to be reviewed by the Senate on June 10.
CVC, which invested €1.5 billion ($1.67 billion) in LFP Media in 2022 in exchange for a share of media revenues, is expected to play a significant role in the new governance model.
The proposal, if implemented, would mark a major shift in how French soccer is managed and is seen as a response to years of financial instability and competitive imbalance within the league system.
Many clubs have lost faith with the LFP due to the organization’s poor handling of media rights deals in recent years.
The latest development has seen the LFP agree to terminate its main domestic broadcast contract with global streaming service DAZN after just one season.
The OTT platform and the league came to a resolution after the LFP board of directors, made up of presidents of Ligue 1 clubs, recently voted to end the five-year rights deal.
DAZN will pay €100 million to break the contract, and the final two rights payments worth another €140 million.
The streamer had picked up the bulk of Ligue 1 rights (eight matches per game week) in a highly contentious bidding saga in mid-2024 under a five-year contract worth €375 million annually.
Qatar-based BeIN Sports also agreed a five-year deal to show one game per week for around €25 million per year – now, the LFP is holding talks with BeIN to end that agreement as well.
The Ligue 1 media rights saga that engulfed the summer of 2024 was disastrous, and as many as eight second-tier Ligue 2 clubs were said to be at risk of bankruptcy had a deal not been reached.
The LFP tanked its domestic broadcast rights outlook by overestimating the value of its package, resulting in this season marking the first time since 1984 that French broadcasting heavyweight Canal Plus is not airing live Ligue 1 matches.
With relationships breaking down with several major broadcasters, the LFP is now seeking to create its own in-house channel to air matches domestically.
This plan is being led by Nicolas de Tavernost, who was recently appointed as the new chief executive of LFP Media.
