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Saturday February 10, 2:26 AM
Lyon football club clashes with Platini over race to stock marketFrench football champions Lyon struck controversy as they launched their shares on the stock market in a bid to raise money to compete with Europe's wealthy elite clubs. As the price rose, with demand particularly strong from British investment institutions, UEFA president Michel Platini, the French soccer legend, attacked the sale.
"The French government was against it. I am also against it. I don't see why we play football to gain three points on the stock market. "If this is the way football is going, then we need a special case and (we need) the support of politicians to say that it is not necessarily an obligation to quote clubs on the market. "We're going to play on Wednesday afternoon and, on the sidelines we're going to see the share price fall and rise in line with the goalscoring." Despite the controversy, the shares were launched at 24 euros and hit 26 euros before falling back to 24.55 euros in late afternoon trading to show a gain of 2.29 percent. "It's a new era for Lyon and all French sports clubs," Lyon president and controlling shareholder Jean-Michel Aulas said at the Lyon stock exchange as the first exchanges flashed up on a giant screen. Lyon issued 3.6 million shares worth about 88.4 million euros (115 million dollars), the Euronext stock market operator said, valuing the entire group, known under the letters OL, at 312 million euros. The club, which has dominated French soccer over the past decade winning the last five league titles, plans to use the money to build a new stadium and shopping complex. The club is the first in France to seize an opportunity opened up by a change in the law, under pressure from the EU, to allow teams to raise funds on the stock market in line with EU open market principles. The French government had argued that once a club had stock quoted assets its exposure to commercial pressures which could influence sporting ethics. Until now, clubs have been privately-owned or financed by municipal or regional funding, lottery money or sponsorship. Aulas said that the flotation had been "the only solution to try to catch up the delay which French football clubs had built up compared with European clubs". "All other countries have this access to private finance and then this will open the way to the construction of some private stadiums. "We know today that the equipment in French stadiums is extremely backward. For the country, it is a fantastic opportunity to put the construction of top quality stadiums in the private sector," he told French radio. The company sees a stock quotation as a way of raising its profile, as well as capital, to match the business prominence of quoted clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool in Britain. According to an annual ranking of the world's wealthiest clubs released this week by accountants Deloitte, Lyon were the richest French club but ranked only 11th in the world. Aulas wants to raise a total of 100 million euros to build a 60,000 seat stadium and a shopping complex costing 250-300 million euros. A source close to the club said that about a third of 139 institutional investors were believed to be based in Britain. Ten percent of the issue had been reserved for small investors of whom 14,000 had subscribed.
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