The 2024-2025 season has waved the entire French football building. From January to May, every weekend has seen the controversy multiply around Var, to the point that several Ligue 1 clubs demanded the head of the boss of arbitration, denouncing “inconsistent” decisions and an unprecedented climate of distrust. At the same time, the open war between the federation (FFF) and the League (LFP) crossed a new level: summoned in March to the federal headquarters, Vincent Labrune and the club presidents had to work under the eye of the government on a rescue plan, while a bill providing to withdraw its delegation of public service to the League and to subject its accounts to the Parliament. In this chaos, the Dazn broadcaster retained 35 million euros in rights.
The Federation, taking advantage of this fragility, even revealed in May a “first League” structure project intended to replace the LFP, a possible “death” of the professional league which crystallizes the fears of the clubs. In this already deleterious context, the audience of June 24 in front of the DNCG resounded like the icing on a bitterness cake. By administratively relegating Olympique Lyonnais, by precipitating Ajaccio in National, by placing Bastia under double guardianship and, above all, by purely and simply excluding the Olympic Nîmes, the financial gendarme has confirmed that many clubs are now flirting with disappearance. Everywhere, cash flows: players' sales serve as a infusion, the Rolls pays are capped, sports ambitions are fading behind the spreadsheets. The body will have only placed a cachet on a season of red alerts – far from closing, the crisis is sinking, and French football, deprived of clear governance, solid television income and confidence in its arbitration, advances around summer with more questions than answers.
French giants in Purgatory!
The DNCG control session of June 24 led to a heavy verdict: 80 of the 174 clubs audited through the French professional pyramid receive a sanction. The most frequent system remains the financial supervision: 69 training courses, including Angers, Bastia and Concarneau, are capped both their payroll and their mutation indemnities, while the others must only contain their payroll. The gendarme of accounts also pronounced eight administrative demances-Lyon descends from Ligue 1 to Ligue 2, Ajaccio de Ligue 2 in National, Bourg-en-Bresse Péronnas slips from National to N2, four N2 clubs fall in N3 and the UCS Cosne backs up in regional 1-as well as two pure and simple exclusions (Bergerac-Périgord FC and especially the Nîmes Olympic) and a prohibition of accession hitting Six-Fours Le Brusc FC. Among these decisions, those relating to flagship clubs withdraw attention. Olympique Lyonnais, despite sporting support, is relegated and sees some 30 million euros in TV rights fly; The shareholder will have to lower almost a quarter of the country with almost a quarter in the country.
The Nîmes Olympique, for its part, disappears squarely from the professional card: excluded from national competitions, the Gard club will have to start from a regional championship, terminate a number of contracts and find liquidity in urgency to fill a deficit greater than six million euros. The AC Ajaccio in turn lives the nightmare of a financial demotion, the DNCG having judged its cash flow (approximately four million) incompatible with Ligue 2.. The SC Bastia, finally, remains under close supervision: each new contract must be fully offset, under penalty of invalidation, a severe reminder after several exercises enclosed in the red. Beyond these emblematic cases, the DNCG recalls that budgetary solidity will remain the primary condition of any sporting ambition. The message is clear: to survive, clubs will have to count more on sustainable models than on the only success on the field, failing which the ax will fall again, whatever their record or their popularity. At this rate, it is no longer a crisis, it is a free fall. And no one really seems to hold the parachute.
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