Vincent Labrune was comfortably re-elected on Tuesday 10 September as president of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) until 2028 by the board members of the organisation. Despite the fiasco over Ligue 1’s television rights and the deleterious climate in French football, the 53-year-old former president of Olympique de Marseille won with 14 votes out of 17.
His opponent, Cyril Linette, former director of the sports department of Canal+, of the newspaper The team and PMU, obtained two votes. There was one blank vote. “On the proposal of the board of directors, the general assembly elected Vincent Labrune as president of the LFP in the first round (85.67%)”The LFP made it official on its X account.
The outgoing president was initially promised a re-election without competition, but the outgoing Minister of Sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had asked the Union of Football Actors (UAF) to review its position and grant Cyril Linette its essential patronage so that he can run for the presidency of the LFP.
Vincent Labrune, in office since 2020, was easily re-elected, although he went through major changes during his first term, and especially in his last year, around the renegotiation of television rights.
After promising €1 billion per season and seeing the tender fail, the LFP had to swallow its ambitions and sell L1 matches for an annual total of around €500 million to DAZN and beIN Sports. A significant drop compared to the €624 million negotiated during the previous cycle and a disaster for the finances of certain French clubs.
