Photo : D.R.
“We’re headed straight for the wall.” Rama Yade, French Secretary of State for Sports, didn’t mince words on 17 September in expressing her fears over the explosion of the European football financial bubble. Bernard Laporte’s successor went so far as to express a desire for the European Union to organise a “football summit” in order to “find solutions.” What is the agenda of these declarations, coming from a politician who has hardly demonstrated an encyclopaedic knowledge of the sporting world? They are even more surprising, given that the French League 1 Championship is, economically speaking, in great shape. This financial equilibrium is notably due to the existence of the DNCG, a national body founded in 1984 in order to monitor the accounts of professional French football clubs.
A European DNCG?
Before the start of each season, the DNCG, which depends on the LFP (Professional Football League), asks each club to present a balanced budget. This body, utterly
essential to ensuring the financial health of French clubs (and without an equi-
valent elsewhere in Europe), has been known to impose downgrades to inferior divisions. Is Rama Yade looking to export the French model by proposing that a European DNCG be formed? This seems likely, but the reasons voiced so far are unconvincing – as sensation-seeking “analysts” have been predicting the explosion of the European football financial bubble for years, and it has yet to come. Inflation certainly has though, in France as elsewhere in Europe.
Disappointing sports results Europe-wide
To give one example, the record sum paid for the transfer of Éric Cantona from AJ Auxerre to Olympique de Marseilles in the summer of 1988 provoked indignant reactions from many well-intentioned observers. The sum of 22 million francs (around 3.5 million euros) paid for this transfer pales in comparison with the current record, held by the Ghanaian Mickaël Essien, transferred from Lyon to Chelsea in the summer of 2005 for…38 million euros(1)! But this inflation is not as considerable as in other major European leagues (see box and other articles in our special report). Rama Yade’s fears spring from problems that lie elsewhere – and notably, in French clubs’ lack of success on a European level in recent years. Since the two European finals lost to Monaco (Champion’s League) and Marseilles (UEFA Cup) in 2004, there is no denying that French teams have hardly shone in European cups these past five years.
Money isn’t everything…
While buying players for the price of gold and offering them indecent salaries is no guarantee of sporting success, the economic gap that has widened between France and other great European leagues (England, Spain and Italy, notably) can-not be ignored, and seems to have condemned French clubs to serve as the foil for the continent’s other teams (at least from the round of 16 onward), with few exceptions. There are no real miracle solutions to this very tangible problem. While in France, football players pay more taxes than in neighbouring countries, decreasing taxes alone will not lure them into staying: tax-free Monaco has just as hard a time keeping players tempted by teams abroad as other league clubs. The attractiveness of League 1 could be strengthened by more concrete measures, priority number 1 being investment in stadium renovation and construction, if need be.
What chances for the 2016 Euro?
Since the 1998 World Cup, when nearly all of the money was spent to build the
Stade de France in Saint-Denis, northern Paris, nothing has been accomplished in this area. Reducing the dependence of clubs in this respect would also be a wise idea, as a large majority of French clubs play in stadiums that they rent from munici-palities, and benefit from various subsidies that encourage handouts and cor-ruption. Rama Yade is paying particular attention to the stadium situation, as part of France’s candidacy to host the Euro 2016, the first one in which 24 countries will participate (a sort of mini World Cup), and for which it is competing against Italy, Turkey and a joint Norway-Sweden candidacy. But if France contents itself to simply “groom” a few existing stadiums through largely public financing (State and local government), its bid will certainly be doomed to failure.
(1) If former Lyon member Karim Benzema lives up to Real Madrid’s expectations this season, his transfer will cost 41 million euros (compared to “only” 35 million euros if the results aren’t there), and a new record will be broken.
The 3 highest-paid League 1 members 2009-2010 season (gross monthly salary)
1 Lisandro Lopez (Argentine / Lyon): 425,000 euros (new record)
2 Yoann Gourcuff (France / Bordeaux): 310,000 euros
3 Lucho Gonzalez (Argentina / Marseilles): 300,000 euros
- Former record: Karim Benzema (France / Lyon): 400,000 euros
- League 1 average in 2009-2010: 34,880 euros (- 5% compared to 2008-2009; in League 2, the drop is - 23%)
Source: L’Équipe
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