Ligue 1: Le Havre contests in court the commercial agreement between the LFP and CVC

The Le Havre club (L1) contested Tuesday before the Paris judicial court the distribution of aid to French football clubs coming from the commercial company set up by the League (LFP) with the CVC investment fund, and demanded the suspension of this agreement. The decision on this request for interim relief will be rendered on January 16.

Le Havre contests the terms, which it considers unequal, of the distribution of the sums resulting from this agreement concluded in April 2022 between the LFP and CVC Capital Partners and expected to bring 1.5 billion euros to French football (L1 and of L2) compared to 13.04% of its lifetime income for the Luxembourg investment fund.

The aid provided for a payment of 600 million euros in the summer of 2022, distributed among three groups of L1 clubs. PSG received 200 million euros, six clubs (OM, OL, Nice, Rennes, Monaco, Lille) each obtained between 80 and 90 million euros, and the others had each earned 33 million euros. Of this sum, 16.5 million was paid in July 2022 and the other half in June 2023.

Ligue 2 teams were to receive 3 million euros over the same period, on the condition of remaining at this level from the 2021-2022 to 2024-2025 seasons. Which is not the case for Le Havre, promoted to L1 this season and thus deprived of half of this sum.

The Norman club, which was in L2 during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons, therefore considers itself cheated, its lawyer, Gauthier Moreuil, explained in court on Tuesday, because it only received 1.5 million euros instead of 3.

And he will not receive half of the EUR 33 million allocation planned for “small” L1 clubs either because he was not in L1 in 2021-2022, unlike Metz, another club promoted this summer, which therefore received these 16.5 M EUR.

For Me Moreuil, the key to distributing the windfall from CVC Capital Partners did not appear on the agenda of the LFP AGM of April 1, 2022, which unanimously adopted the principle of this agreement.

For Thibaud d'Alès, one of the LFP's lawyers, the HAC participated in numerous preparatory meetings and “knew perfectly what it was voting for” during this AGM. “It was absolutely not clear,” replied Me Moreuil.

“Out of pragmatism,” admits Me d'Alès, the League convened a new general meeting on November 23 to “purge” the possible irregularity, and the decisions were adopted by the clubs by a very large majority.