By Dr Estelle Ivanova, Attorney at Law, Paris, France
France has taken a significant step towards reshaping the governance of professional sport with the definitive adoption of the Proposition de loi relative à l'organisation, à la gestion et au financement du sport professionnel. Following agreement in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (Commission Mixte Paritaire) on 8 July 2026, the French Parliament definitively adopted the Bill on 21 July 2026. It is now expected to be promulgated by the President of the Republic within the constitutional period of up to fifteen days, unless referred to the Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel), with most provisions entering into force shortly after publication in the Journal officiel.
The new legislation aims to modernise the regulatory framework governing professional sport by strengthening financial supervision; enhancing institutional governance; improving transparency and integrity standards; combating audiovisual piracy; and reinforcing consumer protection. It represents the most significant reform of the governance of French professional sport in recent years.
The reform is built around two main pillars. First, it strengthens governance and financial control through a new institutional framework for professional sport; enhanced financial supervision; stricter ownership rules; and reinforced governance standards. Secondly, it seeks to protect the commercial value of sporting competitions through stronger anti-piracy measures; the preservation of revenue-sharing mechanisms; and enhanced safeguards for young consumers participating in sports betting.
I. Governance and Financial Control
A. A new governance model for professional sport
The reform modernises the institutional framework governing professional sport by giving delegated sports federations greater flexibility in organising professional competitions and structuring their commercial activities.
A delegated sports federation may now establish either a single professional league or two separate professional leagues, allowing the men's and women's professional sectors to be organised independently. This additional flexibility is expected to facilitate the continued development of women's professional sport by enabling governance and commercial arrangements better suited to the specific needs of each sector.
The relationship between federations and professional leagues is also placed on a clearer statutory footing. The sub-delegation must now be governed by a formal agreement approved by the Minister of Sports and accompanied by an annual report, including measures taken to promote gender equality and prevent sexist and sexual violence. In addition, federations may withdraw the sub-delegation before its expiry in strictly defined circumstances, following an adversarial procedure and subject to ministerial approval. Where the sub-delegation is withdrawn or not renewed, the professional league is dissolved and its assets, rights and obligations are transferred to the federation.
Federations may also establish one or two commercial companies jointly with the professional sports companies holding the exploitation rights to professional competitions. These companies are responsible for the commercialisation and management of the exploitation rights and may also be entrusted, through a ministerially approved sub-delegation agreement, with organisational functions directly connected with those activities. Their governance is carefully regulated in order to preserve the federation's regulatory role whilst ensuring that professional clubs remain closely involved in commercial decision-making. In particular, the delegated sports federations retain a preference share (action de préférence) conferring the right to oppose certain strategic decisions, including amendments to the company's objects, governance structure, competition calendar and the equitable distribution of revenues derived from the commercialisation of audiovisual rights.
B. Enhanced Public and Financial Oversight
The reform also strengthens the financial oversight of professional sport by reinforcing the independence and powers of the financial supervisory bodies responsible for monitoring professional clubs.
In professional football, this function is performed by the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG). More generally, each delegated sports federation establishing one or more professional leagues or a commercial company must ensure the independence of its financial supervisory body. Its members must predominantly be qualified professionals in law, accounting, auditing or finance, and must not hold any office or financial interests within the clubs or commercial companies subject to their supervision. The supervisory body operates under the responsibility of the relevant federation, which must guarantee its independence and ensure the proper discharge of its functions.
The supervisory body's remit is also expanded. Beyond reviewing clubs' financial positions, it is required to safeguard their economic viability, notably by examining operating accounts and compliance with measures relating to squad size and salary caps. Where significant discrepancies reveal an intention to conceal or misrepresent a club's financial position, the supervisory body may impose both financial and sporting sanctions.
The new legislation also establishes a statutory framework governing the review of proposed acquisitions, transfers of control and changes in club ownership. Any such transactions must be notified to the supervisory body, which may approve them, approve them subject to conditions, suspend them pending further review or reject them. In carrying out this assessment, the supervisory body must take into account, amongst other factors, the prospective investor's interests in other clubs competing in the same sport and the financial results of both the prospective investor and, where applicable, other clubs under its control over the preceding five years. It must also verify that the proposed transaction does not present a risk of undermining the club's financial position or sporting uncertainty, or of failing to provide sufficient guarantees for the club's financial recovery. Where a transaction is completed in breach of a suspension or rejection decision, the supervisory body may impose sporting sanctions, including exclusion from competitions or relegation. The new legislation does not prohibit multi-club ownership but makes it an important factor in the assessment of proposed acquisitions and changes in club ownership, requiring the supervisory body to assess whether a proposed transaction could adversely affect a club's financial position or undermine sporting uncertainty.
The reform also extends external financial oversight by bringing delegated sports federations, professional leagues and the commercial companies established under the new legislation within the jurisdiction of the Cour des Comptes (the supreme body for auditing the use of public funds in France). The Cour des Comptes may also review the accounts and management of these entities for the five financial years preceding the promulgation of the new legislation.
C. Integrity and Transparency
Beyond strengthening financial supervision, the reform also introduces a number of measures aimed at reinforcing integrity and transparency in the governance of professional sport. One of its most significant innovations is the express recognition of sporting uncertainty (aléa sportif) as a fundamental principle of professional sport, based on the preservation of equality of opportunity between competitors. This principle underpins the regulation of club ownership and governance and is intended to preserve the fairness and credibility of sporting competitions.
The reform also places particular emphasis on the development of women's professional sport. In addition, as mentioned, to allowing delegated sports federations to establish separate professional leagues and commercial companies for the men's and women's sectors, it requires federations to implement a principle of solidarity, including financial solidarity, between the two sectors. Federations must report annually to the Minister of Sports and to the Permanent Conference on Women's Sport on the implementation of this principle through a publicly available report. The new legislation also requires annual reporting on measures adopted to promote gender equality and prevent discrimination and sexist and sexual violence, whilst amendments to the audiovisual framework seek to improve the visibility of women's professional sport.
The reform also enhances governance standards applicable to sports governing bodies. It introduces enhanced integrity requirements by prohibiting persons convicted of certain serious criminal offences from holding senior management or governance positions within sports federations, professional leagues and commercial companies. Senior executives are required to exercise their functions independently and are subject to stricter conflict-of-interest rules, including incompatibilities with audiovisual broadcasters and sports betting operators.
The new legislation also broadens disclosure obligations applicable to senior executives of sports federations, professional leagues and commercial companies. It also promotes greater stakeholder participation by requiring professional leagues or, where applicable, commercial companies to establish a permanent dialogue committee with recognised supporters' associations, which must be consulted before decisions relating to the professional competition calendar or ticket and season-ticket pricing are adopted.
The new legislation also modernises the regulatory framework governing sports agents. It replaces the previous licensing system with a professional card; introduces mandatory initial and continuing professional training covering professional ethics; the prevention of sexist and sexual violence; and anti-money laundering. The legislation also expands transparency and reporting obligations vis-à-vis sports federations and strengthens oversight of agents' professional activities. It also revises certain rules governing agency agreements, including conflicts of representation, remuneration and contractual disclosure. In addition, it clarifies professional incompatibility rules, notably by providing that lawyers admitted to the French Bar (avocats) may neither practise as sports agents nor obtain or hold a professional sports agent's card unless they have first requested omission from the roll of the Bar (omission du tableau de l'Ordre). Any breach of these incompatibility rules is subject to the sanctions provided for under the Code du sport and the legislation governing the legal profession.
II. Broadcasting and Consumer Safeguards
Alongside the reform of governance and financial supervision, the new legislation also introduces measures designed to protect the commercial value of sporting competitions and reinforce consumer protection. It strengthens the fight against audiovisual piracy, preserves key principles governing the distribution of broadcasting revenues and introduces new safeguards for young adults participating in online sports betting.
A. Protecting the Commercial Value of Sport
The reform introduces greater flexibility in the commercialisation of audiovisual rights. It removes the previous statutory requirement to market broadcasting rights in separate packages, allowing the competent league or commercial company to offer the rights either as a single package or in multiple packages, depending upon its commercial strategy.
It also requires agreements governing the commercialisation of broadcasting rights to incorporate existing legal requirements relating to the broadcasting of events of major importance on ‘free-to-air’ television, as well as the rules governing audiovisual advertising and sponsorship.
The reform further revises the distribution of audiovisual revenues. Sports federations are now responsible for determining the maximum distribution gap between clubs participating in the same competition, which may not exceed a ratio of 1:3. This mechanism is intended to preserve a degree of financial solidarity within professional competitions.
The reform significantly strengthens the protection of audiovisual rights by reinforcing the anti-piracy framework applicable to live sports broadcasts. Its objective is to improve the effectiveness of measures against the unlawful streaming of sporting events and thereby protect the commercial value of broadcasting rights, which constitute an essential source of revenue for professional sport. Whilst judicial authorisation remains the legal basis for blocking unlawful streams, rights holders are now permitted, under the supervision of the French Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM), to use an automated system enabling the rapid identification and blocking of newly identified illegal streaming services during live sporting events.
ARCOM oversees the operation of this automated mechanism by supervising the collection of identification data, reviewing complaints and ensuring compliance with the statutory framework. The reform also introduces administrative sanctions for intermediaries that fail to comply with blocking measures and creates new criminal offences targeting the unlawful dissemination of live sports broadcasts and technologies designed to facilitate illegal access to protected content.
B. Consumer Protection
The reform also strengthens the regulatory framework governing sports betting by introducing enhanced consumer protection measures and reinforcing the powers of the French National Gaming Authority (Autorité nationale des jeux – ANJ). Online betting operators must now take account of players' losses, in addition to deposits and stakes, when implementing responsible gambling mechanisms. Particular protection is afforded to young adults aged between 18 and 25, who may not increase their gambling limits before the expiry of a minimum two-week cooling-off period. In addition, the ANJ may, by reasoned decision, impose temporary loss limits on this age group for periods of up to one year. These provisions will enter into force on 1 January 2027.
The new legislation also introduces additional measures to protect the integrity of sports betting. It creates a specific offence of prohibiting the unauthorised collection of real-time sporting data within sports venues for sports betting purposes; strengthens the ANJ powers to combat illegal gambling operators; and facilitates regulatory cooperation with foreign gambling authorities. It also provides that individuals convicted of harassing players, referees or other participants in sporting competitions may be made subject to a gambling prohibition.
Conclusions
Rather than fundamentally altering the traditional French model of sports governance, the new legislation seeks to modernise it by equipping federations, professional leagues and clubs with new legal tools to address the economic, technological and governance challenges facing professional sport.
By strengthening institutional oversight, promoting greater transparency and integrity, and protecting the commercial value of sporting competitions, the new law aims to enhance both the competitiveness and the long-term sustainability of French professional sport, whilst preserving the core principles on which the French sports model is built.
Its practical impact will, however, largely depend upon the implementing measures adopted and on how the enhanced powers entrusted to sports federations and public authorities are exercised in practice.
Dr Estelle Ivanova may be contacted by e-mail at ‘