600 million losses in 2022, 45 million less than the time before. French football is not doing wildly well, if we dive into the accounts published by the LFP on Friday for the 2021-2022 season, even if Jean-Marc Mickeler, president of the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), tries to dismantle the opposite in an interview with Les Echos.

"Without the combined efforts of shareholders, the public authorities and the League, French football would have gone bankrupt. But what is interesting is that half of the Ligue 1 clubs do not show losses. These clubs have embarked on a virtuous approach to control their cost base, develop their revenues excluding audiovisual rights and reduce their dependence on the sale of players. . The 22-23 season should allow them to begin their consolidation as well as the beginning of deleveraging. But we must act quickly because the financial debt of Ligue 1 has increased by 88% between the 2018-2019 season and the 2021-2022 season, from 522 million to 981 million.



The ceiling of one billion euros of debt is not far away, while the main locomotive of French football continues to tap into the coffers: Out of competition, PSG still lost 368 million last season, which is not even such a bad performance considering the weight of the wage bill (729 million). OM lost 31 million euros, while OL, still deprived of the European Cup, came back ric-rac in the nails thanks to the sales of players last summer.

The president of the DNCG also concedes that the money is quite badly spent by the French representatives in the European Cup: "To score a point in the UEFA index, our teams spend 15.4 million in payroll. The Germans spend 10.9 million, the English 11.9 million, the Italians 12.1 million and the Spanish 13.4 million. Spain spends less and has won four European Cups in the last five seasons." And it is not the elimination of Nice in the quarter-finals of the Conference Europa League that will improve the perspective this season.

  • Sport
  • Football
  • Ligue 1
  • Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG)
  • Olympique de Marseille (OM)
  • Olympique Lyonnais (OL)
  • UEFA Index