Clubs to be allowed to float on stock market but with restrictions

Adjust font size:

In compliance with a ruling handed down by European Commission, sports minister Jean Francis-Lamour announced to club officials that they are now allowed to float on the stock market.

According to a report in French newspaper L’Equipe, the government is still opposed clubs putting themselves on the market, but it has no choice. The move has been anticipated for years. At the meeting, Francis-Lamour invited the president of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalettes and French League president Fr?d?ric Thiriez and a number of presidents of clubs: Gervais Martel (Lens), Jean-Michel Aulas (Lyon), Michel Seydoux (Lille) and Maurice Cohen (Nice). Though they will be allowed to float on the stock market, the move comes with restrictions. Francis-Lamour told the clubs that they will only be allowed to float on the stock market if they own their own stadium, the case with just two clubs: Auxerre and Lens. The restrictions were made to protect clubs with unstable finances. The French government must still convince the European Commission that these restrictions are legal.