March 16 – Mounting debt, collapsing broadcast deals, court cases, and political infighting have left the French professional game drifting.
Now, the politicians are wading in to the debate as two senators are warning that the crisis can no longer be ignored.
In an op-ed published in Le Monde, on March 10, Laurent Lafon and Michel Savin called on the National Assembly to urgently debate legislation initially adopted by the Senate in June 2025 with cross-party support designed to overhaul the governance and financing of professional sport in France.
At the heart of the problem is Ligue 1. France’s top division is struggling with a widening financial imbalance between clubs, and with outside investors even feeling the strain. Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has reportedly seen the value of its stake in the league’s commercial arm decline, while UEFA’s latest club financial report highlights the huge and growing gap between the French leagues and their international competitors.
Broadcast revenues have been under intense pressure and not just from rights fees. According to the senators, nearly one in five French viewers now watches sport illegally, with football responsible for roughly half of that piracy. Current anti-piracy tools, they argue, remain “insufficient compared with other European countries,” warning that “every month of delay worsens financial pressures and weakens the economic model.”
The launch of the league’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, hailed as the league’s life-saver in the face of the lack of a major broadcast partner investment in rights, has reportedly generated significant losses.
“The situation is deteriorating,” Lafon and Savin warned, arguing the Senate bill represents the only realistic path toward stabilising the sport. Without reform, they caution, French football risks entering a period of “structural decline”.
The legislation proposes sweeping changes, including tighter league governance rules, stronger oversight of conflicts of interest, salary caps in certain areas, and real-time tools to combat rampant broadcast piracy.
Support for reform is growing with Olympique de Marseille, RC Lens, Le Havre AC, Stade Rennais FC, Paris FC, Olympique Lyonnais and FC Metz urging the government to place the bill on the parliamentary agenda, warning that continued delays threaten competitiveness, investment, and the long-term viability of the professional game.
With global crises dominating the agenda in world affairs and in Paris, the emergency engulfing French football risks being pushed to the corner. As Arrigo Sacchi once said: “Football is the most important thing of the least important things.”
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