Interview- How the French LFP manage to reach the highest away fans attendance in several years?

Earlier this month, the French league (Ligue de Football Professionnel - LFP) announced historical numbers for away fans attendance since the start of the current 2022-23 season. At mid-season, more than 80’000 away fans attended games in the two professional divisions (Ligue 1 Uber Eats & Ligue 2 BKT) in French stadiums’ dedicated sections. A record figure for French professional football with an increase of 36% compared to the previous season.

We caught up with Maël Garde Provansal, Stadium Experience and Fan Relations Project Manager at LFP to better understand the factors behind this success.

When did the league start working on a concrete strategy towards and with away fans?

Naturally, we were already aware of the importance of building and structuring a strong relationship with fans, especially after the French government published in 2016 a fundamental law (Larrivé) that required all professional sports clubs to hire a “supporters referent” (in French “Référent Supporters” from English/UEFA terminology SLO: Supporters Liaison Officer) to create and reinforce a structured dialogue with fans. An authority dedicated to supporters was also created by the French Minister of Sports (the ISN – National Supporters Authority) to develop opportunities for discussion on this matter between all national stakeholders.

When it comes to the LFP, we decided internally to work together with all our clubs on a new dynamic strategy aiming to better structure the relationship with fans after analyzing a few success stories and exchanging information with other European leagues already using dialogue as a privileged tool.

We started with a clear direction: to establish a meaningful dialogue and institutional relationships with the ANS (National Association of Supporters) and engage with key European stakeholders including Football Supporters Europe (FSE), UEFA, and of course the European Leagues. in 2018 we presented our roadmap which was instrumental to kick off the actual action plan. During the past five years, we have developed numerous projects with clubs and fans, mainly to improve relationships and dialogue with clubs in particular through the fundamental role of SLO.

Earlier this month, the LFP has hailed historical figures showing a significant increase of away fans attendance in the past few years. Can you tell us more about the figures and data you announced?

Since the start of the 2022-23 season, 58’346 away fans attended a Ligue 1 matches in away fans sections, representing an average of 324 visitors per match. This cumulative attendance is up 36% compared to the previous mid-season:

Source: LFP – Ligue 1 / Ligue 2

In Ligue 2, the away fans attendance amounts to 22’341, representing an average of 128 fans per match. The cumulated attendance has almost doubled (+92%) and wipe out the previous 2019-20 record (16’649 fans).

Figures are moving in the right direction thanks to all the work and efforts provided by clubs, the league, and fans, despite two main challenges we must continuously face and which are particularly distinctive of France: 1) Culturally, French fans are not used to travel for away matches, with the exception of a few clubs including RC Lens and Olympique de Marseille for example. 2) Groups of supporters can sometimes be subject to restrictions and travel bans.

How can you explain these figures and justify such an increase in away attendances?

First of all, the integration in the LFP’s Competition Regulations of the “Away Supporters’ Route” with a clear objective to improve and harmonise the reception conditions of away fans. In France, we don’t specifically have a culture of welcoming away supporters so we had to issue a roadmap to support and foster clubs to welcome away fans in better conditions, following our guidelines (preparatory meeting, welcome kit, facilities, liaison with local authorities…) as well as meeting the security requirements imposed by football stakeholders and authorities.

The preparatory meetings are a key component of the reception of away fans since they foster dialogue between all parties through a meticulous preparation of each match. These meetings involve all stakeholders including SLO, Safety & Security Managers, Local Authorities and Ticketing Managers to facilitate the safety and ease of travel. The main objective is clearly to enhance cooperation between clubs and local authorities in order to increase away fans’ welcoming conditions and volume, and promote dialogue first and foremost rather than directly imposing restrictions.

Since the start of the season, we have been trying to strengthen the relationship with security officials, especially with the DNLH (National Directorate Against Hooliganism – French NFIP), while still engaging fruitful discussions with fans. Once again, our priority is to promote dialogue and avoid as much as possible any type of administrative sanctions and disciplinary measures..

Finally, we established a price cap framework for away fans with a single fare of 10€ in Ligue 1 and 5€ in Ligue 2. We realized that the average price for an away ticket was around 15€, with major differences depending on the club, on-top of all travel expenses, while the conditions offered to fans were not always optimal. We worked closely with clubs to prove that a price cap was the best solution to attract more fans. Any loss in ticketing revenues would be anyway offset by the financial gain of their own supporters.

CAP app - 07.03.2023