Pushed towards the end too quickly, too soon, Jean-Michel Aulas harbors great regrets for his OL.
” Football can drive you crazy “, he says, boasting however of having managed to avoid the slightest pitfall in his career as manager of OL. Forced to hand over to the American John Textor not long ago, Jean-Michel Aulas regrets the evolution of the round ball. “ Football has entered a form of excess with club-stateshe breathes in a long interview with La Tribune. Traditional investors are excluded. We are talking about salaries between 100 and 200 million per player! We have entered into a limitless inflationary process, a bit like the art market with the prices of canvases and sculptures soaring in auction rooms. This is the result of non-regulation in France and in Europe. It will be necessary to regulate football otherwise this sport is heading for disaster with bankruptcies and scandals. »
His planned eviction from OL orders, the person concerned does not rank it among the scandals but he is nonetheless bitter, too quickly eclipsed for his taste. ” 36 years old and 76 titles in all competitions, which is unique in the history of football. This record is eternal. (…) I sold because my partner Jérôme Seydoux, much more experienced than me, wanted to sell and announce it publicly, thus expressing the desire to rationalize the investments of his group. It happened quickly. I learned it almost by chance on the eve of an OL quarter-final in Porto. Obviously, that precipitated my own choices because I didn’t want to sell that way. »
“I have some regrets”
Not that way, and obviously not to Eagle Football Holdings and John Textor. In his interview with La Tribune, “JMA” rewinds the thread of the sale: “ I receive six offers selected by the American bank Raine. I choose one, that of Foster Gillett, which is not the one that will be retained. I am made to understand that the bank prefers another. Initially, I wouldn’t have sold everything, maybe I wouldn’t have sold at all. I accept, but I pose as a condition that the candidate for the takeover takes over a large part of the capital. I have some regrets, but I’m turning the page while keeping a very close eye, since I remain a shareholder of OL Groupe, via my company Holnest, up to 9%. »
As such, Jean-Michel Aulas does not hesitate to point out the shortcomings of his successor, in particular in the face of the National Management Control Directorate (DNCG) very recently – a body linked to the Professional Football League (LFP) which confirmed on appeal this Tuesday the control of the payroll and transfers of OL players. ” The outcome of the appeal before the DNCG was unfortunately predictable, since the guarantees requested were not satisfied. I am disappointed. I am in many ways. First because when the club that I led for 36 years goes through a difficult patch, it hurts me, it’s carnal, and I suffer from it. Then, I saw it all the more badly as the situation was perfectly avoidable: 3 months ago, the file that I had sent to the DNCG aimed to obtain a profit forecast of 90 million euros by activating 4 different levers: refinancing of the stadium, sale of OLW, sale of OL Reign, sale of players. These levers had all been initialized since March-April 2023… but the DNCG is doing its job of checking and translating what it sees into action. It is now up to the new leaders to provide the right answers. »
