While French men’s football is in crisis due to falling television rights income, women’s football continues to change. Three months after the launch of the Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP), its president, Jean-Michel Aulas, received, on Tuesday, October 3, the leaders of the First and Second League clubs at the headquarters of the French team. Federation (FFF).
On the agenda of the debates are the presentation of progress in professionalization and objectives, such as the increase from twelve to fourteen first division clubs by 2026 and the number of licensees from 250,000 currently to 500,000 in 2028. commission In the afternoon, the former president of Olympique Lyonnais (OL) gave an hour of interview to World.
Some Premier League managers or players have recently stated that professionalization has not changed anything in their daily lives. What do you answer them?
There are many negative comments that hide a very positive evolution. So that French women’s football no longer falls behind English football, which started long before us [leur professionnalisation remonte à 2017]First we had to structure ourselves. This is what we continue to do, but we will have to wait for the results of this structuring.
There are already some concrete ones: we now have more than 220 players with a professional contract in the championship, a record. Another telling point: the crowds. Last season there were only nine games with more than 1,000 people in the stadium when Paris Saint-Germain [PSG] and OL were not playing. After two days, there are four of us. Television audiences have increased by 25%. Women’s football is acquiring an extremely important dimension.
However, professionalization is far from being achieved everywhere, in all clubs…
PSG, OL, Paris FC and Fleury are already almost 100% professional. For the other clubs we are working hard. The teams have general managers, new additions, video analysts, doctors… Positions that did not exist two years ago [en 2022]. The LFFP supports them in particular with licenses, which define the level of structuring of a club and allow them to obtain subsidies. [600 000 euros par saison pour la licence élite, la plus élevée]. But obviously, to obtain these licenses investments are required by the clubs.
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