Gérard Lopez: questions over €100,000-a-month LOSC and CS Fola contract | OneFootball

L'Équipe reports that LOSC paid €1.2 million to Luxembourg club CS Fola Esch under a 2017-18 agreement of unclear benefit to Lille. The deal ran from September 2017 to August 2018, months after Gérard Lopez bought Lille, and involved his boyhood club.

Before taking Lille on 26 January 2017, Lopez spent a decade as Fola’s president, winning titles in 2013 and 2015. He left in March 2017. Fola have since dropped to the second division.

The contract set out player promotion, scouting support and first-refusal rights for Lille, plus supervision across the Grande Région, namely Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and France. It also required monthly reports to Lille’s scouting department.

No player moved between the clubs’ first teams in 2017-18 or 2018-19, nor reserve or under-19 transfers in 2017-2019. Lille declined to comment. Internal sources who joined after Lopez say the reports never existed, while a then-employee recalled early meetings and low-level trials.

Through his lawyer, Lopez said he lacks the documents cited and alleges a personal vendetta by Lille’s president, adding he was neither beneficiary nor decision-maker, subject to board and Elliott approval. He said he was not involved in daily administration or payments, and that services were delivered.

After DNCG alerts, the League filed an article 40 referral in May 2019 over Lille’s management under Lopez. Olivier Létang’s October 2021 complaint was joined by the Lille prosecutor. A judicial investigation continues, the federation joined in 2024, examining LOSC contracts from 2017 to 2021 linked to Lopez.

Source: L'Équipe