Where French Rugby Clubs Get Their Money

Breaking down how the world's richest teams in the world generate income

Ever since Rugby turned professional in 1995, the sport has had a difficult relationship with money. The richest league in the world, the French TOP14, publishes an annual report on the finances of its clubs every single year. In this series we will deep dive the report for the 2023/24 season to understand where the money comes from, how it’s spent and if the game in France is under threat.

TV Money

The French TOP14 has the most valuable TV deal of any domestic rugby competition in the world. The newest deal, signed in 2024, sees Canal+ pay 696.8 million Euros for the TOP14 and the ProD2 second division between 2027 and 2032. This works out to nearly 130 million Euros per season. The money is paid by Canal+ to LNR - the organisation that runs the TOP14 and the ProD2 - who the distribute it to the clubs.

No other league in rugby comes close to the TOP14 when it comes to TV revenue. The English Premiership and URC TV deals are worth between 30 and 40 million and have far shorter contracts. What’s more, the likes of the Premiership have seen their TV income decrease significantly over the last 10 years, whereas France has seen a significant increase. Rugby is simply much more popular in France, with the national rugby team drawing a significantly bigger audience than the national football team.

International Players

French clubs receive extra money depending on how many player they supply to the French national team. The biggest benefactor of this is Toulouse, who supplied 13 players to the 2025 Six Nations campaign.

France operate a national squad of 42 - larger than most other countries - so most clubs get at least some of the money. Only the promoted Oyonnax did not receive any of these payments last season. However, they did receive a 1 million Euro parachute payment.

European Competition

The other income that TOP14 clubs receive via LNR is for playing in the EPCR Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. Champions Cup teams receive 557,000 Euros each and Challenge Cup teams get 374,000 Euros each. The winner of the Champions Cup (Toulouse) gets an extra 600,000 euros.

It is known that the European Cup competitions are not high paying for clubs, with the Irish Examiner reporting Leinster view the competition as a marketing exercise over a money making one. It is reported that the new TV deal for 2024/25 season will see income for the competitions shrink again.

The total monies paid to the clubs via LNR are summarised in the below table:

Ticket Sales

The TOP14 is the most attended league in the world, able to sell out stadiums even for 9pm kick-offs on Sunday nights. The most attended club rugby match ever was the 2016 TOP14 final between Racing 92 and Toulon, which drew 99,000 fans at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium.

Ticket sales have been climbing since the end of the COVID pandemic for both the TOP14 and the ProD2. Last season, income from ticket sales reached a record high at nearly 5.5 million across the two leagues. The most attended club is Union Bordeaux-Begles who sell out 32,000 tickets most weeks. Meanwhile, it is common for clubs to move their most popular matches to bigger stadiums; as Toulon always do for their game against Toulouse which draws 66,000 fans to Stade Velodrome in Marseilles.

Other Income Streams

The LNR report outlines the typical income streams for a TOP14 clubs and how much each contributes to the overall revenue of the club as a percentage. This will not be the same for every club, but gives the averages:

• 44% partnerships (sponsors)

• 20% payments from LNR (explained above)

• 15% ticket sales

• 7% merch sales

• 7% other products

• 5% transfer fees

• 2% grants

Partnerships may also include payments by the owners. Most TOP14 teams are owned by extremely wealthy benefactors. For instance, Montepllier are owned by scaffolding magnate and author Mohammed Altrad, whose company (Altrad) act as the team’s front of shirt sponsor.

Summary

Overall, the TOP14 teams saw record revenues for the 2023/24 season at 434 million Euros, a 9% increase on the previous season. The revenues for the TOP14 and the ProD2 combined was well over half a billion.

Toulouse received the highest amount of money from LNR, almost 2 million more than any other club. Perpignan received the least, 53% less than the Champions.

By far the biggest income stream for TOP14 clubs is partnerships at 44%. Despite having the biggest TV deal in the world and record ticket sales, those income streams only add up to 35% of total income.

Next week, we will investigate how French clubs spend their money and reveal the discrepancies between those at the top of the league and those at the bottom.

Thank you for reading! If you want to learn more about French rugby, check out the TOP14 Digest podcast - your weekly instalment of results stats and most importantly… LE GOSSIP!