Ligue 1 side Lens will be “out of cash in a month if it does not solve the lack of payment” by its majority shareholder, Hafiz Mammadov, according to Joël Domenighetti of L’EQUIPE. In accordance with the commitments it made to the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), the financial monitoring organization of Ligue 1, the club is awaiting an additional payment of €2.5M ($3.1M) to the bank account of the holding company that owns the club. Lens “needs this amount to lift the ban” on recruiting to which the club is subjected until further notice. It cannot register new player contracts because they will not be approved by authorities until the club obtains evidence the money is present in the bank. This amount was originally scheduled by the end of October, but the assets of Mammadov have “been frozen in his home country.” Azerbaijan Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov confirmed last week that Mammadov is in a position of “bankruptcy,” particularly for having underwritten an “enormous loan” of €112M linked to drilling in the Caspian Sea that he can “no longer pay back.” At the request of the club, the next meeting with the DNCG is scheduled for Dec. 15. Lens President Gervais Martel “must provide concrete evidence by that date,” otherwise it faces additional sanctions that can range from maintaining the recruiting ban to the administrative demotion to a lower division for the ’15-16 season. Mammadov will also owe the club another €14M ($17.3M) in January. This payment will be used by the club to “assume a large part of its lifestyle, to enable it to strengthen its squad, and allow it to overcome its structural and cash deficit.” Without this payment from Mammadov, the club will no longer be able to pay its suppliers or salaries by the end of January (L’EQUIPE, 12/2).
