An election for the presidency of the Professional Football League (LFP) sometimes feels like a conclave in the Vatican. We enter it as pope and we leave it cardinal. Michel Denisot had the bitter experience of it this Thursday.
Given a big favorite, the journalist and host – but also former club president, at Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) and Châteauroux – saw Vincent Labrune grilling his politeness to succeed Nathalie Boy de la Tour, elected in 2016 and who passed his turn.
At 49, Labrune made a surprise return to the world of French professional football after his departure (or rather his ouster) from the presidency of Olympique de Marseille (OM), a position he held between 2011 and 2016. Appointed worst boss of OM by the daily Provence, this Orléanais with shoulder-length hair and the allure of a dandy inherits for four years a position as prestigious as it is exposed. Especially in the current context.
Out of the woods at the last moment
With the health crisis and the end of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons, French football has offered the spectacle of a torn family, in particular about the rankings to be stopped. For weeks, club presidents would have gladly sent dirty dishes to their faces if it was technically possible by videoconference. “I know the complexity of the task, the situation of French football and the crisis we are going through”, has also admitted the new boss of the LFP in his first statement.
Meeting on September 10, 2020, the General Assembly of the LFP proceeded to the renewal of its Board of Directors … https://t.co/9Mu1N32uZp
His election also tells about the divisions of French football. If Labrune topped the favorite at the post, it is because he was pushed by several presidents of Ligue 1 (such as those of Nice, Lorient, Montpellier, Reims, Nantes) elected to the new board of directors of the LFP to block Denisot supported by the majority of Ligue 2 formations, but also PSG, Lyon and Noël Le Graët, the president of the French Football Federation (FFF).
Discreet about his ambitions, Labrune came out of the woods at the last moment. But this former TV man, too – notably alongside Jean-Luc Delarue in the Reservoir Prod company – had advanced his pawns for several months. Thus, he has always kept in touch with his former fellow presidents with his natural interpersonal skills. Joined the management of Moma Group, one of the leaders in events in France, for example, he organized in spring 2019 the convention of the Premier League union (bringing together seventeen of the twenty Ligue 1 clubs) in a Monegasque hotel.
“Vincent is brave, he took a hell of a job”, also greeted the President of the Premier League, his friend Bernard Caïazzo. But not everyone shares the enthusiasm of the chairman of the board of directors of AS Saint-Etienne. Chosen by 15 votes against 10 to Denisot by the board of directors, Labrune obtained only 48% of the votes before the general assembly of the League. A narrow result and which underlines that his appointment goes badly with some leaders.
Treaty of “guignol” by Jean-Michel Aulas
During his time at OM, the man has also made some irreducible enemies. Starting with Jean-Michel Aulas. In September 2015, the president of Olympique Lyonnais settled accounts with his counterpart after a tense OM-OL: “I told Labrune that it was a puppet and that it would last less than he thought in football. “ By way of welcome, “JMA” invited Vincent Labrune to “Humility” because of his score below 50% in front of the assembly.
If the former Marseille leader wishes to be the president of appeasement, he will already have to start by settling these old resentments. Far from being won in the case of an Aulas who still threatens to sue the LFP and claim 117 million euros in compensation for his club due to the stoppage of the season while OL did not occupy a European place.
The other big issue is the reform of the governance of a League which must reaffirm its independence and its authority vis-à-vis clubs especially concerned with defending their personal interests. The task promises to be delicate. Labrune risks to compose between “big” wishing to push for the creation of a commercial company on the model of the English championship, and “small” concerned about a fair distribution of TV rights.
But before all this, the new president is looking for a general manager, a strategic position within the LFP. Labrune would have maintained Didier Quillot well, but the latter was no longer in the odor of sanctity with certain presidents and had announced that he would not hang on to his post. Two “house” profiles are mentioned to succeed him: those of Arnaud Rouger, director of sports activities (until his recent resignation) and Mathieu Ficot, in charge of media rights at the LFP. The lucky winner should be known this Friday.
