FootBiz newsletter #73: is Ligue 1 broken for good? Man City FFP verdict delayed, La Liga accused

Was it just me or was that a rough weekend of football? As someone who watches a lot, often six or seven matches over Saturday and Sunday, it’s hard to recall a weekend with as disappointing a slate.

With much of the most consequential stuff in the Premier League already decided, this weekend’s games were a bit… meh. Saturday’s 3pm kick-offs in particular left me cold.

Der Klassiker had goals but it undeniably lacked its usual juice with Dortmund 27 points adrift of the Bayern team they were supposed to challenge for the title. Lionel Messi’s visit to Chicago was a drab 0-0. Madrid and Barcelona squeaked out narrow 1-0 wins that lacked in excitement.

Perhaps it was just poor game selection from me.

But particularly when contrasted with the Masters it was truly a dismal footballing weekend.

The Masters was already having its week in the sun before one of the best final rounds I can remember. As a story, it will be hard to ever beat Tiger Woods’ 2019 win and that image of the throngs following him down the 18th fairway, but Rory McIlroy’s grand slam win on Sunday night was far more dramatic.

As Sunday played out, it was interesting to observe those who are slaves to the narrative returning (and returning, and returning) to the well and labelling McIlroy a “choker”. Whether it was his double bogey on 1 or his chip that went awry on 13, everything was suddenly a choke.

It got to the point where if he dropped his pencil it meant he was about to bottle the round.

If he took the wrong turn on the way to the bathroom it would be taken as the sign of an impending meltdown.

These people never explain how, when Rory instantly flipped the script on Bryson DeChambeau within 20 minutes of his opening hole ‘choke’, he suddenly wasn’t a choker anymore.

Indeed, did Rory unchoke himself before, during or after the defining shot of the tournament, that banana hook around the tree on 15 that rolled up to the hole?

It’s just that it was only 10 minutes or so after he choked on 13, so you wonder how that science works. Did he subsequently re-choke himself when he missed the putt on 18?

If you were desperate to find a choker then you might want to look at DeChambeau’s final round, but it would be far better to simply file it under ‘inane sporting commentary’ alongside all discussion of momentum.

Even with McIlroy one putt away from cementing himself as an all-time great of the sport, completing a feat that had only been achieved by one person (Tiger Woods) since 1966, this tiresome narrative hung around.

The Irishman’s near misses are absolutely part of his story, but if the fork in the road that you have created is “choker” if the putt misses or all-time great if it drops then you’re doing everybody a disservice. Sport is incredibly nuanced and golf more than many others.

It deserves coverage that reflects that.

Anyway, back to football…

Table of Contents

• City’s 130 charges verdict delayed

• Ligue 1 might be broken

• Vinai to Spurs as new CEO

• Mbappe fight for €55m from PSG

• Textor sued over Palace, Lyon jobs

• Club World Cup playoff latest

• La Liga vs Serie A for US-based league games

• CONMEBOL floats 64-team World Cup

• Mediapro loses La Liga deal, makes accusations

• Cherries write off loan to avoid PSR breach

• New betting probe in Italy

• Chelsea’s £60m spend on agents

City’s 130 charges verdict delayed

The verdict over Manchester City’s 130 charges is now unlikely to be reached (or at least made public) until the summer, according to a steady stream of reports to emerge in the last week.

While the three-month hearing at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre concluded before Christmas, a verdict and announcement was expected during the spring but the complexity of the case and the intense public and legal scrutiny of the coming verdict have caused delays.

It will be a watershed moment for the Premier League and regulation in football when it comes, over two years since the league announced the slew of charges against the defending champions and nearly seven years since the initial investigations began.

City have been accused of deliberately breaching a raft of the league’s financial rules over a nine-year period and then failing to cooperate with investigations into their alleged misconduct.

Ligue 1 might be broken

Ligue 1 and DAZN have come up with four scenarios to try and break the impasse surrounding the French top flight’s broadcasting deal.

The LFP, who organise Ligue 1, began this season hurting severely from a drastically reduced broadcasting pact with the London-based streamer that saw clubs earn around half of what LFP president Vincent Labrune had promised during negotiations.

But even at the lower number, DAZN have been disappointed with the agreement as the lack of subscribers threatens to undermine the fragile economics for an OTT platform that already loses nearly $1.5bn per year.

Less than a year into the supposedly long-term agreement, DAZN have sought a way out of the deal and withheld a €35m payment in January in protest at what they perceive to be inaction on the part of the LFP in dealing with piracy, one of the reasons put forward for why DAZN have only picked up around 500,000 subscribers. DAZN can currently exit the deal if they don’t have 1.5m subscribers by December - a number they will not achieve.

Since both sides got lawyers involved in February, the two parties have been in mediation and L’Equipe published a detailed report this week on the proposals being put forward to try and break the deadlock.

The league put forward two scenarios to fix the situation:

1. DAZN continues to pay and broadcast Ligue 1 until the end of this season, then bails on the deal paying a reduced compensation rate for exiting

2. The deal continues until June 2027 and pushes back the December 2025 exit clause by a year. DAZN would pay a reduced rights fee

DAZN put forward two scenarios of their own:

1. DAZN continues to pay and broadcast Ligue 1 until the end of this season, then bails on the deal without paying anything else

2. DAZN continues to broadcast the league until 2029 as anticipated, but their financial commitment switches to be far more variable and based on targets rather than a fixed amount. They would also pick up the one game per week that they don’t show, and is instead broadcast by BeIn Sports

The mediation finishes today (Tuesday) but the fear in French football circles is that this is closer to breaking into an “all-out war”, to borrow L’Equipe’s phrase, than finding some peaceful accord.

As bad as the rights bidding process was from Labrune and the LFP, the prospect of losing your severely reduced broadcast deal because of underperformance is terrifying for the message it sends to the wider market about French football.

DAZN’s hand has also been strengthened by the ongoing circus around the league, including leaked videos showing owners bickering and abusing each other as well as a row between owners of two of the league’s biggest clubs and conflict of interest questions surrounding Nasser Al-Khelaifi.

Vinai to Spurs as new CEO

Former Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham has been appointed as the new chief executive of north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Venkatesham performed a number of different roles across nearly 15 years at Arsenal, taking over as CEO during the Covid-affected season in 2019/20 when the Gunners finished eighth and began their rebuilding process.

His background was originally in trading oil before becoming a strategy consultant at Deloitte and then working for the 2012 Olympics campaign where his focus became more commercial. He joined Arsenal in 2010 as head of partnerships before wearing many different hats at the Emirates, and he is often seen at London’s Groucho Club.

As one interested observer pointed out to FootBiz, senior executives hopping from one club to a rival wouldn’t necessarily have made a ton of sense in previous generations but there are clues as to why Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has pushed for Vinai when his experience at the European Clubs Association (ECA) is mentioned.

Venkatesham was previously on the ECA board and is well connected within the organisation that lobbies on behalf of Europe’s elite clubs.

“They all want the same thing,” noted the observer.

“That the biggest clubs in revenue grow their revenue more than everyone else combined.”

One of his first tasks at Spurs could be working with sporting director Johan Lange finding a new coach, with Ange Postecoglou seemingly needing to win the Europa League to keep his job next season.

A decision will also have to be made on Fabio Paratici, formerly managing director of football at Tottenham but currently banned until June for his part in the plusvalenza scandal. Paratici has remained involved as a consultant at Spurs and could continue in north London but has recently been linked to a senior role at AC Milan and has also held talks with prospective ownership groups over executive positions linked to M&A activity.

Mbappe fight for €55m from PSG

Kylian Mbappe’s ugly challenge on Alaves’ Antonio Blanco which earned him a deserved red card in Real Madrid’s 1-0 win on Sunday was not his only headline act of the last week - though it did get him a talking-to from club president Florentino Perez, per local reports.

In far bigger news, the French striker has appealed to the French sports minister and UEFA in his battle with Paris Saint Germain as he seeks €55m in allegedly unpaid wages and bonuses after he left the club last summer.

The French League (LFP) ordered PSG to pay Mbappe last year, but the French Football Federation ruled that his request was inadmissible because of an ongoing procedure in a civil court. The 26-year-old's legal team last week appealed to a Paris court to freeze €55 million in PSG's accounts ahead of the next civil hearing on 26 May.

“This story has been going on for just over a year now,” said Delphine Verheyden, Mbappe’s lawyer. "One year was the deadline we set for ourselves for trying to resolve this dispute. As the months went by, Kylian Mbappé still hasn't been paid. A decision has been taken, this time to go on the attack."

“After hearing yet another fantastic story from a parallel universe today, PSG continues to fail to understand why Kylian Mbappe is not taking his case to the labour chamber, which is the only court competent to settle the dispute between him and his former club," PSG said in response.

"All the procedures announced by Kylian Mbappe's lawyers only serve to delay the resolution of the dispute by the labour chamber, before which PSG is ready to present all the facts, evidence and testimony proving the existence of an agreement, or better still by means of the transaction that PSG has been calling for over a year."

Textor sued over Palace, Lyon jobs

In another truly remarkable lawsuit, Benfica manager Bruno Lage is suing John Textor over allegations that he promised him the top job at Crystal Palace or Olympique Lyonnais in a “legally binding” retainer agreement.

The former Wolves boss alleges that Textor promised him in writing upon taking the Botafogo job in July 2023 that he would offer him the post at Palace or Lyon between January and April 2024. Botafogo and Lyon are majority owned by Textor’s Eagle Football vehicle, while he has a minority interest at Palace.

Lage signed on as Botafogo coach for six months, but was fired after just three of those and never received an offer from either of Eagle’s major European clubs despite both changing managers. Palace hired Oliver Glasner to replace Roy Hodgson, who had fallen ill, while caretaker boss Pierre Sage took the full-time post at Lyon (though he has since been fired).

In legal documents first reported by the Telegraph, the “retainment agreement” bearing Textor’s signature assures Lage that he will be offered at least a two-year contract to coach either team, with a net salary of £2.75m, between January 1 and April 15.

The agreement also states that if that does not happen, Lage would be paid by April 29.

After remaining unemployed during the retainer period, Lage took the Benfica job many months later but is pursuing Eagle Football for the money he alleges he is owed, plus interest and costs, totalling around £6m.

Eagle Football Holdings told the Telegraph in response:

“Eagle Football is aware of a court claim filed against it on behalf of Bruno Silva Do Nascimento (known as ‘Bruno Lage’). The claim relates to a dispute over the proper interpretation of a historical agreement between Eagle and Mr Lage. Eagle’s view is that Mr Lage is not contractually entitled to the sums being claimed on his behalf.

“Accordingly, Eagle will vigorously defend the claim and seek to recover its costs of doing so from Mr Lage.

“Eagle Football notes that Bruno Lage’s claim relates to an alleged failure to offer him a role at one of its clubs. Eagle Football finds it curious that Bruno Lage feels aggrieved by this given that, as was widely reported, he effectively walked away from one of Eagle Football’s clubs Botafogo.

“Eagle Football remains open to a constructive discussion with Bruno Lage or his representatives with a view to resolving the dispute and settling the litigation which will ultimately serve neither party.”

Club World Cup playoff latest

Pending León’s appeal against their expulsion from the Club World Cup this summer, FIFA have been planning a play-off between two other CONCACAF clubs to determine who will take their place.

Firstly, we have heard that 51% of León could transact before this appeal is heard. So then it will be at FIFA’s discretion as to how they manage that in accordance with their rulebook.

Secondly, reports out of Mexico suggest that it would be Cruz Azul and not Club America who would play LAFC for the final spot at this summer’s tournament. Cruz Azul are now higher in CONCACAF’s rankings, per these reports.

Club America’s sporting director Santiago Baños has said he doesn’t know what will happen.

“We haven’t received nor do we have any information on the matter," Baños said.

"Regarding the ranking, just a week ago there was talk about a possible match between América and LAFC. We’ve stayed on the sidelines - even before FIFA’s announcement, everyone was already naming América as a candidate, but we’re not involved at all. This is an issue between León, FIFA, and CAS. We’re just focused on our work. We're not aware of it, nor do we give it any importance because it’s all speculation. We don’t know anything about it.

“FIFA has made its position clear - it sanctioned a team that violated the multi-ownership rule. FIFA has taken a clear stance. Now it’s up to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to issue its opinion, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Costa Rica’s Deportivo Alajuelense are also fighting to take León’s spot.

La Liga vs Serie A for US-based league games

La Liga and Serie A have begun a race to become the first European competition to stage league matches in the United States and the US Soccer Federation and event promoter Relevent Sports last week settled their long-running legal dispute.

Relevent have dropped their claim of antitrust law violations in federal court, removing the last legal hurdle to domestic soccer leagues moving fixtures to the USA. Relevent settled a similar dispute last year with FIFA, who have set up a working group to examine the implications of moving games to other countries on which the events company are represented, giving a heavy clue as to the likely outcome.

La Liga and Serie A have made no secret of their desire to stage league games in the United States, and are understood to be accelerating plans to move fixtures across the Atlantic next season. Real Madrid, Juventus and Inter Milan will be in the USA this summer at the Club World Cup, while Barcelona are also eager to be involved.

Relevent’s legal action against FIFA and US Soccer began in 2018 when their attempt to hold a La Liga game, Barcelona v Girona, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. When FIFA announced its policy barring domestic leagues from holding games abroad later that year, Barcelona withdrew from the fixture. Both Relevent and the Hard Rock are owned by Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross.

In 2019 Relevent proposed staging an Ecuadorian league game between top-flight sides Barcelona SC and Guayaquil City FC in Miami. US Soccer refused to sanction the match citing FIFA policy, which led to Relevent filing a law suit against them and adding FIFA as co-defendants.

CONMEBOL floats 64-team World Cup

CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez, who was recently accused of corruption in his native Paraguay, used his opening address at the South American federation’s 80th Congress last week to officially propose the expansion of the men’s World Cup to 64 teams in 2030.

The controversial idea was first suggested by Uruguayan Football Federation president Ignacio Alonso during an online FIFA Council meeting last month in what was described as a “spontaneous” intervention, although FIFA sources have indicated to FootBiz that president Gianni Infantino had been tipped off beforehand.

Infantino attended the CONMEBOL Congress last Thursday when he described the 2030 World Cup as “an exceptional milestone,” with FIFA releasing a statement the following day which said they had “a duty to analyse any proposal from one of its members.”

FIFA’s 75th annual Congress will take place in Paraguay on 15 May when it will be intriguing to discover if the proposal is given more airtime.  

The 2030 World Cup is already set to be the most sprawling edition with six host nations spread across three continents, following FIFA’s decision to add games in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina to the three hosts, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

A further expansion to 64 nations after moving to 48 for the first time for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, could be a potential vote-winner for Infantino if he opts to stand for election for a third full term as president in 2027.

There is already opposition, however, with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin coming out against the “bad idea” and his Asian counterpart, AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, similarly expressed caution over the idea of a 64-team World Cup and where FIFA may go next.

“If the issue remains open to change, then the door will not only be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams, but someone might come along and demand raising the number to 132 teams,” said Salman. “Where would we end up then? It would become chaos.”

Mediapro loses La Liga deal, makes accusations

La Liga has switched their media production and distribution partners after 20 years with Mediapro, and Mediapro haven’t taken it well, accusing the league of “manipulating” the tender process and denigrating their rival bidders.

The Spanish league announced this week that they would be signing with production heavyweights HBS and NVP for the next five years, with the two firms creating a joint venture in Spain to work with La Liga.

In a statement, Mediapro described the decision as “neither fair nor objective”, adding that it believes that it “may jeopardise the production of the matches at the start of the season. It will undoubtedly harm the clubs and the competition both economically and in broadcast quality.”

They also criticised a “lack of transparency, shifting deadlines and repeated delays” in the bidding process, going as far to say “the process may have been intentionally manipulated to favor other participants”.

The incendiary response is available in full here.

Cherries write off loan to avoid PSR breach

Bournemouth only avoiding breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) last season after they were permitted to write of a £71.4million shareholder loan when Bill Foley bought the club from Maxim Demin in December 2022. Premier League approval for the loan write-off was revealed in the club’s 2023/24 accounts, which were published last week, and had been previously reported by The Athletic.

Bournemouth posted losses of £77.2m in the 2022-24 PSR cycle, which would have increased to £148.6m had the Premier League prevented the write-off counting towards PSR, well over their three-year loss limit of £83m.

Shareholder loan write-offs do not ordinarily count when PSR compliance is calculated, but the Premier League opted to do so on this occasion as it was linked to Demin’s sale of the club to Foley. The PSR headroom created by the write off enabled Bournemouth to sign players such as Dean Huijsen, Tyler Adams and Evanilson during the three-year cycle, who have been instrumental in Andoni Iraola’s side challenging for European qualification this season.

Worth monitoring to see if this becomes more of a trend.

New betting probe in Italy

USMNT midfielder Weston McKennie and Newcastle United star Sandro Tonali are among 13 footballers being investigated as part of a probe into illegal betting.

The new investigation stems from evidence given by Tonali and Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli in a previous probe which resulted in both Italian internationals being banned for much of last season. Fagioli was suspended for seven months while Tonali missed 10 months for more severe breaches - he bet on games involving his own team.

Fagioli has admitted to trying to lure a number of teammates, including Italy teammate Nicolo Zaniolo, into illegally betting as well as struggling to pay his own gambling debts that topped €1.5m.

A report from Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera described a “desperate” Fagioli as he struggled to repay his debts, receiving multiple threats from a debt collector identified as “Nelly.”

“You’ve pissed me off. You think I’m going to let you make a fool of me?” said one text message.

Chelsea’s £60m spend on agents

Chelsea once again topped the table for spending on agents’ fees, doling out £60m to intermediaries in the period between February 2024 to February 2025.

The club has spent £180m on agent fees in the three years since being bought by a group headed by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

Manchester City weren’t far behind with an agent spend of £52m, before a significant drop to Manchester United (£33m), Aston Villa (£25m) and Newcastle (£24m).

Leicester City, Everton, Southampton and Ipswich Town were the bottom four clubs, and only clubs to spend less than £10m on compensating intermediaries.