Laurent Nicollin: "Within ten years, 90% of French clubs will be under foreign flags"
Reserved for subscribers
INTERVIEW - Laurent Nicollin, the long-time president of Montpellier, questions the growing presence of foreign majority shareholders at the highest level of French football.
LE FIGARO - Ten of the eighteen Ligue 1 clubs have a majority foreign shareholder. How can this be explained?
LAURENT NICOLLIN - Ten? I thought there were more... The question we could ask ourselves is why there aren't more large French groups investing in French football. Fortunately, there are wealthy French families investing , like the Arnault family at PFC. The Pinault family has been in Rennes for a while (1998) . It's nice to see big French entrepreneurs investing rather than foreign entrepreneurs. After all, it's like everything else. Opportunities make things happen.
Is it regrettable to have a majority of Ligue 1 clubs under foreign flags?
The law allows it, and there are opportunities. But that's not the kind of football I envision. Unfortunately, I think that in the next ten years, 90% of French clubs will be like that. Especially with the non-existent TV rights at the moment...
This article is reserved for subscribers. You have 74% left to discover.
lefigaro
