A few high rollers in Ligue 1 took big risks this season. With the financial crisis in French football grave and deepening,Marseilleand Lyon rolled the dice. The bet has not paid off for everyone, and Lyon could yet be left counting their pennies.
“The club’s future has been uncertain since the start of the season; that is why, since the beginning, we set ourselves the target of qualifying for theChampions League,” admitted Lyon defender Moussa Niakhaté after their 2-0 defeat to Monaco on Saturday. The club’s financial situation is dire. With debts amounting to €540m, desperation gripped Lyon this season.
Rather than imposing an austere regime, owner John Textor went for broke in search of a Champions League place, investing almost €150m in the squad over the course of the season and making the divisive choice to sack the highly popular Pierre Sage and bring in former Milan manager Paulo Fonseca. Textor says the decision to sack Sage was completely driven by the necessity of qualifying for the Champions League. Despite the short-term boost, Fonseca looks unlikely to takeLyonto the promised land. The cost of failure could be relegation to Ligue 2, or even a ban from European football.
The DNCG’s administrative relegation still looms over the club, who have to convince French football’s financial watchdog that the situation has improved since the initial provisional sanction earlier this season. But the DNCG are not the only ones worried.
Uefa is also concerned by the ongoing situation and there is talk of preventing Lyon from taking part in European competition next season, if they qualify. Lyon are seventh inLigue 1with one set of fixtures to play, so have a good chance of qualifying for the Europa League or Conference League. There are rumours in France that Uefa will sanction the club but ultimately allow them to compete in Europe. However, nothing is certain.
Given the turmoil, Textor’s stock among Lyon fans has plummeted. The American owner was booed by the away fans at the Stade Louis II on Saturday. He was also the subject of a banner that made a crude play on words involving Eagle Football’s floating on the stock exchange and Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s testicles. It didn’t paint Textor in flattering terms. His public spat with former president Jean-Michel Aulas, both of whom accuse the other for the current financial mess, has done little to bolster his standing.
Lyon’s bet has failed; Marseille’s has not. “Without the Champions League, it would be a disaster,” admitted the Marseille sporting director Medhi Benatia last month. “We accepted the bet and there was risk-taking from the decision-makers. It is fundamental to be in the Champions League.”
After finishing eighth in the league last season and missing out on Europe, Marseille invested heavily in the summer, signing Adrien Rabiot, Mason Greenwood, Amine Gouiri, Elye Wahi, Ismaël Bennacer and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, as well as manager Roberto De Zerbi. The club is expected to lose €80m this season, a price owner Frank McCourt deemed necessary to return to the Champions League, which they secured on Saturday thanks to a 3-1 win over Le Havre. Failure would have seen their spending scaled back dramatically.
“Without the Champions League, nothing would be normal,” admitted Benatia. The pressure to succeed has been palpable throughout the campaign: De Zerbi publicly tendered his resignation in November before staying on; the club’s president, Pablo Longoria, was banned for 15 games after he accused referees of “corruption”; and there was the squad’s two-week escapade to Rome – an extreme measure to focus minds and withdraw from what was perceived as a toxic atmosphere in their native city. But, unlike Lyon, their bet came in.
Others did not take such risks.Monaco, a country famed for its casino, did not roll the dice. “We had to face our responsibilities to the DNCG and Uefa. Several clubs are struggling with this. I don’t want to put us at risk. This limits us in the market,” said Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro in January. That is not to say that there would not have been consequences had they failed to return to the Champions League.
“When you are Monaco manager, you are always under pressure,” said Adi Hütter after Monaco secured their ticket for next season’s Champions League thanks to the win over Lyon. “Sometimes you feel like you have a sack of rocks on your back and now I’m feeling really light.”
Nice, having spent little this season as their owners, Ineos, focus on Manchester United, are in a similar situation. “It is more vital for other clubs [to qualify for the Champions League] than us,” said Franck Haise before their defeat to Rennes this weekend. “I don’t know if that makes us lucky. In any case, there is no pressure from the management of the club, from the DNCG,” he added. Nicecan still qualify for the Champions League if they beat Brest on the final day of the season.
When the chips were down, Lyon and Marseille’s desperation came to the fore. And the financial situation in French football is only worsening. The president of the French FA, Philippe Diallo, has already spoken of the “structural” problems in the domestic game. That was before DAZN, who only became Ligue 1’s broadcaster at the start of the season, announced that their five-year deal would be cut short this summer.
The financial implications are potentially devastating and the desperation shown by some of Ligue 1’s high rollers this season could become infectious, with the need for European football greater than ever. Inevitably, some clubs will leave the casino empty handed and that’s the worry.
Saint-Étienne gave themselves a glimmer of hope in their bid to beat the drop with a 2-0 win atReims. First-half goals from Florian Tardieu and Irvin Cardona secured the three points, and they will need another win on the final day of the season, as well as some help from Strasbourg. Liam Rosenior’s side face Le Havre, who are one point behindLes Vertsand currently occupy the relegation playoff spot. Reims’ run to the Coupe de France final has somewhat plastered over what has otherwise been a poor season, and the defeat againstSaintéleaves them at risk of relegation going into the final day of the season.
PSG made nine changes to the side that beat Arsenal in midweek but still made light work of already relegatedMontpellier, with Gonçalo Ramos netting a hat-trick in a 4-1 win. Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Willian Pacho, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha have been given a period of leave and will return on Wednesday. Ousmane Dembélé, unsurprisingly, bagged the prize for Ligue 1’s best player this season on Sunday. His teammate, Désiré Doué, won the young player award, and nine of the 11 players in the team of the year wereParisiens.The only exceptions, Lucas Chevalier and Rayan Cherki, have been heavily linked with moves to the Parc des Princes. If PSG’s dominance wasn’t already evident in their B-team’s beating of Montpellier on Saturday, it was certainly underlined in the awards ceremony a day later.
This is an article byGet French Football News