Four days before their last match of the Ligue 1 season, against Nantes, ASSE is relegated, and the club is more than ever on the brink of the abyss of the League. A possibility that terrifies a good part of the green people. And who has anything to worry about from an economic point of view for Jean-François Brocard.
“Have they prepared well for a possible descent, wonders the researcher, we are not completely sure. And when I say prepare well, it is in particular, do they have in the contracts clauses which would allow them to see the salaries distributed to the players decrease. […] There are clauses that exist: if the club is in Ligue 1 the player receives so much, and if the club is in Ligue 2 the player receives less. And if the clause is not included at the start obviously when the player is in a downhill club and there is no clause in his contract, then he wishes to maintain his salary at the level where it was at the start and That would put the club in big trouble, since salaries are the main part of the costs that clubs face, so it is one of the very important elements and we hope that the club has taken the lead on this.
The question is more than relevant, sincea good part of the workforce of the Greens is coming to the end of their contract. Several locker room executives, including Ryad Boudebouz and Wahbi Kazhri, could very likely leave Saint-Étienne. But it’s almost a blessing in disguise, assesses Jean-François Brocard: “Should they be re-signed at the Ligue 1 salary? Obviously not, since there won’t be the same income opposite them. Will the players agree to sign contracts at lower salaries? It’s the whole question of the negotiation, I think there is also a need for a new sporting dynamic, and I’m not sure that these big contracts will remain next year in Ligue 2.”
The reduction in TV rights would deprive ASSE of a huge financial windfall
Because with the drop in its revenue from TV rights, ASSE will see its financial income melt away like snow in the sun. “There will be a drop in TV rights, which are a very important recipe for professional clubs.” Even if Jean-François Brocard relativizes. “Clubs that are relegated benefit from relegation aid, which makes it possible to create a small cushion, so that it is not necessarily an economic disaster. Now this aid does not last, so that means that the first year , it’s already not obvious, but if you ever can’t get back up quickly, that’s when you really start to become a Ligue 2 club again. And the difficulty with ASSE is that it you have to be able to cope with the loads of the training center, the stadium, the staff, the administration, and that’s where it would get complicated.”