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Ligue 1 Side Lille Reports $20.2M Loss For The '13-14 Season

Ligue 1 side Lille "recorded a new deficit of more than" €16M ($19.8M) on the ’13-14 season, according to L’EQUIPE. The club’s ‘13-14 accounts were validated Wednesday during the annual board of directors meeting. The financial situation of the club has become “objectively troublesome in regard to its indebtedness (124% of total revenue) and of its lavish lifestyle.” The Great Danes revealed a deficit of €16.4M ($20.2M) "despite bringing in" €30M ($37M) from the sales of players (Aurélien Chedjou to Turkish football side Galatasaray, Dimitri Payet and Florian Thauvin to Ligue 1 side Marseille and Divock Origi to Liverpool, of note). Lille has "only had one season since ’08-09 in which it reported a surplus" (up €3.7M in ’11-12). Despite the French National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) asking Lille last winter to reduce its payroll, it “increased slightly from 1.5% to reach, expenses included,” €58.7M ($72.4M). The club did, however, renegotiate several player salaries, "leveling their wages in return for contract extensions." Regardless of those efforts, the club has “put itself financially at risk.” Already forced to repay a bond loan of €19.25M ($23.8M) by June 30, the club took out a second loan of €20M ($24.7M) secured on Luchin field, the training center of the club. This allowed the club to repay its ongoing debts and to secure a surplus of cash flow of nearly €10M ($12.3M), but its equity still "fell to an amount lower than half of the company’s capital." According to commercial code, an extraordinary general meeting must therefore be held by the shareholders of the club within four months to "determine the strategy that will be put in place." Belgian billionaire Marc Coucke, the club’s minority shareholder (5%) "who was supposed to become the boss of the club at the end of the season," has already deposited €3.25M on the club’s current account (L’EQUIPE, 12/17).

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