CHINA'S MIDDLE CLASS STRIKE

'Hopeless': Chinese homebuyers run out of patience with developers

Beiyi SEOW
Thu, August 11, 2022


Newly married and with his first child on the way, auto worker Wang wanted to move into the apartment he bought in Wuhan three years ago but those hopes were dashed by China's ballooning property crisis.

Saddled with $300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had had enough and stopped making mortgage payments.

He is among numerous homebuyers across dozens of cities in China who have boycotted payments over fears that their properties will not be completed by cash-strapped, debt-laden developers.

"They said construction would resume soon," Wang told AFP, only giving his surname. "But no workers showed up."


Beijing-based Wang was planning to start a family after purchasing the home.

"It wasn't easy for us to buy this home. It all came from my savings," said Wang.

"Now there's no home, and we still owe two million yuan ($300,000) in mortgage payments."

After years of explosive growth fuelled by easy access to loans, Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on excessive debt in 2020.


That squeezed financing options for property sector giants such as Evergrande, as they struggled to make repayments and restructure mountains of debt.

Now they are facing mortgage boycotts and government pressure to deliver pre-sold homes.

In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, buyers such as Wang said they received multiple postponement notices on their apartments from developer Myhome Real Estate, months past the promised delivery date in late 2021.

The builder said in a notice this week that it had managed to release some frozen funds, adding that it expects to complete the Wuhan project in late 2022.

Wang said he stopped repayments this month, and that complaints to authorities in the city did not make a difference.

"There's no hope in life, carrying on with payments like this."
- 'Our hearts are cold' -

The "crisis of confidence" in China's housing market points to structural flaws, said Andrew Batson of Gavekal Dragonomics in a recent report.


Because of their heavy reliance on selling apartments in advance, developers pursued business models that exposed buyers to the risk of not getting their homes, he added.

As financially stressed firms halt construction on projects, "those risks have dramatically materialised".

The crisis has left homebuyers in limbo.

"I thought it would never happen," a Wuhan homebuyer surnamed Hu said of his unfinished home.

The 25-year-old said his family took out loans to help with the down payment for a three-room flat in 2018.

At that time, Wuhan was encouraging college graduates such as Hu to get household registrations in the city, he said.

Known as "hukou", these all-important government registrations allow access to healthcare and schools.

"Everyone was buying property back then... people were vying for it," he said.

Another young homebuyer Xue said almost all of his salary now goes to rent and mortgage payments.

"I don't want to pay any more," the 24-year-old said. "Our hearts are cold."

"It's not that we disregard the law or contracts, but this situation puts us under too much pressure."

Xue's family put down 800,000 yuan for the flat while he took on a 600,000 yuan loan that he has been repaying for two years.

Buyers in Wuhan told AFP there have been protests over unfinished pre-sold homes in the city.
- Vicious cycle -


Homebuyers in around 100 cities -- involving more than 300 housing projects -- have boycotted mortgage payments, according to a crowdsourced document named "WeNeedHome".

Many are in central Henan's provincial capital Zhengzhou, where authorities have set up a fund to help developers complete projects.

Other affected cities include Chongqing and Changsha.

There have also been allegations of financial mismanagement, and some cities have called on banks to tighten their oversight of escrow accounts, according to local media reports.

Nomura analysts estimate that Chinese developers have only delivered around 60 percent of homes they pre-sold between 2013 and 2020.

In those years, China's outstanding mortgage loans rose by 26.3 trillion yuan, Nomura added.

The property sector's woes were thrown into sharp relief last year when it emerged that Evergrande was having trouble repaying its creditors, sparking panic that the industry, which accounts for around a quarter of China's GDP, was on the brink of collapse.

Homebuyers' ability to make mortgage payments is not the main issue, said Oxford Economics lead economist Tommy Wu in a report.

But a loss of confidence in developers will worsen the real estate downturn, he added.

"The chance of a vicious cycle -- declining housing sales and prices, mounting developers' distress, and deteriorating local government finances -- developing is concerning."

Swiss mountain pass set to lose all ice within weeks

The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron in western Switzerland has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge—and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured around 15 meters (49.5 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September".

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top, from one glacier to the other, but now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining ice left.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared to the last 10 summers.Austrian scientists race to reveal melting glaciers' secrets

© 2022 AFP

Swiss Mountain Pass Ice to Melt Completely Within Weeks

Voice of America
12th August 2022,

GENEVA - The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

'The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks,' the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured about 15 meters thick in 2012, the ground underneath 'will have completely resurfaced by the end of September.'

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

'No one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving,' said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.

The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. It should be about 10 meters deep with a volume of 250,000 cubic meters.

Covers have been put on sections of the Tsanfleuron glacier by the pass to protect them from the sun's melting rays.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared with the past 10 summers.

Swiss mountain pass ice to melt completely within weeks

Issued on: 11/08/2022 -

Geneva (AFP) – The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge -- and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured around 15 metres (50 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September".

Land unseen in centuries

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 metres in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

"No-one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving," said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.

The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. It should be about 10 metres deep with a volume of 250,000 cubic metres (8.8 million cubic feet).

The ski resort is working out how to adapt to the new reality if people cannot ski between the two glaciers.#photo1

"We are planning to renew the facilities in this area in the coming years, and one idea would be to shift the route of the current chairlift to allow more direct access to the Tsanfleuron glacier," said Tschannen.

Covers have been put on sections of the Tsanfleuron glacier by the pass to protect them from the Sun's melting rays.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared to the last 10 summers.

Bodies emerge from ice

The melting of the glaciers makes them more unstable, which makes them less viable for winter sports and hiking, but it also means that things buried in the ice for years -- even decades -- can re-emerge.

In the past two weeks, two human skeletons were found on glaciers in Wallis.

Work is underway to try to identify the remains. According to the Swiss news agency ATS, the Wallis police have a list of some 300 people who have gone missing since 1925.

In July 2017, the Tsanfleuron glacier turned up the bodies of a couple who disappeared in 1942.

The bones of three brothers who died in 1926 were found on the Aletsch glacier in June 2012.

And last week the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Alps in 1968 was discovered on the Aletsch glacier.

The bodies of the three people on board were recovered at the time but the wreckage was not.

© 2022 AFP

Obstructions slow bid to save trapped Mexican miners

Jean Arce
Thu, August 11, 2022 

Rescuers trying to enter a flooded Mexican coal mine where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week have encountered obstructions blocking their advance, authorities said Thursday.

A soldier wearing a helmet and military fatigues and equipped with a scuba tank descended into one of the mine shafts in a metal cage on Wednesday, emerging minutes later visibly wet.

The rescue team made four attempts to explore the crudely constructed El Pinabete mine in the northern state of Coahuila, but debris prevented them from entering the main tunnel below, officials said.

"They found that they don't have room to move forward. There are obstructions," Defense Minister Luis Cresensio Sandoval said.

Rescuers would keep trying to gain access, the general told reporters in Mexico City.

Five workers managed to escape in the initial aftermath of the accident on August 3, but there has been no contact with the others.

Two underwater drones have been deployed in the operation in Agujita, as have hundreds of soldiers and other rescuers, 25 water pumps and seven drills.

According to authorities, the flood occurred as miners were carrying out excavation work and hit an adjoining mine full of water.

The focus so far has been on pumping out water from the 60-meter (200-feet) deep mine.

The water in the shafts had fallen significantly, from more than 30 meters, but was still several meters deep, authorities said.

"We will be evaluating it throughout the day. We have to be careful not to endanger anyone," civil defense national coordinator Laura Velazquez said.

Prosecutors have announced an investigation into the accident, the likes of which are common in Coahuila, Mexico's main coal-producing region.

The worst was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.
- Families waiting -

Frustration was growing in the tight-knit mining community with each passing day.

"It's been eight days now. We're running out of hope because they (authorities) don't give us any information to give us hope," a miner and volunteer rescuer who did not want to be named told AFP.


The government's announcement on Wednesday that rescuers were close to entering the mine was greeted with caution by anxious relatives.

"Let's hope that now it's true. Every day they say the same thing," said Juan Orlando Mireles, whose father is among the missing.

Artist Roberto Marquez has traveled 800 kilometers (500 miles) to Agujita from Dallas, Texas with the canvas on which he has depicted the missing miners.

The 60-year-old Mexican painter goes around the world capturing tragedies, but also the hope that emanates from them.

"We wish that our brothers come out alive," said Marquez, who also painted a mural in San Antonio, Texas, after more than 50 migrants who had been abandoned in a trailer died in June.

He also created another after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas in May, and one near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the first weeks of the Russian invasion.

"It has to be a message of support," said the artist, who put his work -- reminiscent of Mexican muralism and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" painting -- on display near the mine entrance with the help of relatives.

Angelica Solano, a 58-year-old housewife living nearby, came bearing trays of food for relatives and rescuers.

"Every time there's a disaster or someone needs our support, we have always done it as a family," she said.

"We have to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who always need us," she added.

axm-jla-dr/des

UN watchdog warns of 'grave' crisis amid violence  WAR near Ukraine nuclear plant

Moscow and Kyiv on Thursday accused each other of new shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a dangerous escalation five months into the war.

Published: 12th August 2022 

The Zaporizhzhia plant is in southern Ukraine, near the town of Enerhodar 

on the banks of the Dnieper River. (Photo | AP)


UNITED NATIONS: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned an emergency Security Council meeting on Thursday of the "grave" crisis unfolding at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of new shelling near the facility.

"This is a serious hour, a grave hour," Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Security Council, adding that the IAEA must urgently be allowed to conduct a mission to Zaporizhzhia.

And in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of "nuclear blackmail" as he urged the international community "to react immediately to chase out the occupiers from Zaporizhzhia."

"Only the Russians' full withdrawal... would guarantee nuclear safety for all of Europe," Zelensky said in a video address to the nation.

Moscow and Kyiv on Thursday accused each other of new shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a dangerous escalation five months into the war.

Both sides said there were five rocket strikes near a radioactive material storage area at the plant, Europe's biggest nuclear facility which has been a focus of renewed fighting in recent days.

Ukraine's nuclear agency Energoatom said later there had been fresh Russian shelling near one of the plant's six reactors that had caused "extensive smoke" and "several radiation sensors are damaged".

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Moscow-installed regional administration, said Ukrainian forces had "once again struck" the plant.

The Ukrainian plant is under the control of Russian troops, and Ukraine has accused Moscow of basing hundreds of soldiers and storing arms there.

'Cannot wait any longer'

In New York, Security Council members all supported calls for an urgent IAEA mission to Ukraine -- but there was no consensus over who was to blame for the attacks and who should be responsible for facilitating the mission.

Bonnie Jenkins, the US State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security, said the visit "cannot wait any longer" but added that only a full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine would keep the nuclear plant safe.

"This would allow for Ukraine to restore the impeccable safety, security, and safeguards performance it upheld for decades at the facility."

But Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya put the blame for the attacks around Zaporizhzhia squarely on Ukrainian forces.

"We call on states that support the Kyiv regime to bring their proxies into check to compel them to immediately and once and for all stop attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power to ensure the safe conditions for the conduct of the IAEA mission," Nebenzya told the Council.

Earlier Thursday Washington also backed calls to establish a demilitarized zone around the plant.

'State sponsor of terrorism'

The Soviet-era plant in southern Ukraine was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of March -- shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbour -- and has remained on the frontline since then.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia could cause an incident "even more catastrophic than Chernobyl" -- a reference to the nuclear disaster in then-Soviet Ukraine in 1986.

"Russia has turned the nuclear station into a battlefield," he said earlier Thursday, addressing a Ukraine donors conference in Copenhagen by video link.

He called for stronger sanctions against Russia, saying it was a "terrorist state" -- on the same day that Latvian MPs adopted a resolution calling Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism".

The statement said Russia's actions in Ukraine constituted "targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed it as a "timely move" and urged other countries to follow suit, while Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it "xenophobia".

Latvia has also urged all EU countries to ban tourist visas for Russian citizens and said the measure should be extended to Belarusians because of the Belarusian regime's support for the invasion.

'We hope for the best'

The war meanwhile rumbled on in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting against Ukrainian forces since 2014.

In the bombed-out town of Soledar, the few residents left are living in underground shelters.

"We hope for the best, but every day it turns out worse and worse," said Svitlana Klymenko, 62, as the relentless shelling continued outside.

Another man living in the shelter, 59-year-old Oleg Makeev said: "You can't cook anything normally here, you can't wash. How am I supposed to feel?"

Brazilians march in 'defense of democracy' ahead of elections

Protesters fear that far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who is lagging behind his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvain in the polls, will not respect the result of October's vote.

Le Monde with AFP

Published on August 11, 2022 

 \

Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Thursday, August 11 in "defense of democracy," after President Jair Bolsonaro's sustained attacks on democratic institutions, weeks ahead of elections. Demonstrations were also planned for Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.

The demonstrations were sparked by fears the far-right leader, lagging in opinion polls, would not respect the outcome of October's vote given his repeated attempts to cast doubt on Brazil's electoral system.

"After 200 years of independence in Brazil, we should be thinking about our future, but we are focused on preventing a regression," University of Sao Paulo rector Carlos Gilberto Junior told a gathering of hundreds of academics, business and trade union leaders and civil society members.Read more Subscribers only Jair Bolsonaro officially launches his re-election campaign

Outside the campus, thousands held up banners denouncing Bolsonaro and proclaiming: "Respect the vote, respect the people." Some were dressed as electronic voting machines, which Mr. Bolsonaro has claimed make cheating easier.

"Our president has already given indications that he will do everything possible to prevent elections," architect Sabrina Cunha, 62, told news agency Agence France-Presse. "I was from the student movement during the military dictatorship (1964-1985), I know what awaits us," she added.

At the university gathering, a video was shown of Brazilian artists reading a petition "in defense of the democratic state of law." The document has garnered more than 900,000 signatures since being posted online two weeks ago. "We are living a moment of great peril for democratic normality, of risk for institutions, with insinuations of non-compliance with election results," reads the text.


An LGBT activist dressed as an electronic voting machine at a demonstration at Sao Paulo University

 ANDRE PENNER / AP

Voters in Brazil cast their ballots electronically at voting stations. But Mr. Bolsonaro has long argued for a paper printout to be made of each vote cast, suggesting the absence of a paper trail enables cheating. He has not provided any evidence of electoral fraud, and the Superior Electoral Court insists the system is fair and transparent. Last month, Mr. Bolsonaro repeated his claims at a meeting with foreign ambassadors, prompting the US embassy to later say Brazil's electoral system was a "model for the world."Read more 

His repeated attacks have led analysts to fear he may refuse to accept defeat, like his former American counterpart Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Several Brazilian business associations have also published public letters of concern, including the Brazilian Federation of Banks and the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo. This is seen as a setback for Mr. Bolsonaro, who drew much support from the business sector in the 2018 election.

According to the latest opinion poll by the Datafolha Institute, published on July 28, Mr. Bolsonaro lags 18 points behind former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the favorite to win the election.

Removing 'camouflage,' Brazil football referee comes out


Douglas MAGNO, with Rodrigo ALMONACID in Sao Paulo
Thu, August 11, 2022 


Growing up, he never liked football, but Igor Benevenuto played it anyway to avoid being teased with homophobic jokes -- something all too common in his hometown in southeastern Brazil.

He wasn't much good as a player, but found a passion for refereeing -- and the perfect "camouflage" to hide his homosexuality. Until now.

Last month, the Brazilian premier league official came out publicly on a football podcast, joining a very short list of trailblazing referees to publicly identify as gay.

Benevenuto, 41, was already well-known in Brazil. A trained nurse as well as a FIFA-certified referee, he had made headlines at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when he hung up his whistle to take a job in a public hospital, joining the front lines of the fight against Covid-19.

Now, Benevenuto says, after a lifetime hiding his sexuality, he wanted to get the "emotional burden" off his chest and do his part to change the machismo that permeates Brazilian football.

"I want to show that football is also a space that shapes who we are as a society, and that anyone can exist there, regardless of color, sexual orientation or anything else," he told AFP in an interview from the city of Belo Horizonte, his hometown.

"It's your right, and it has to be respected."

Few football referees have come out as gay. They include Jorge Jose Emiliano dos Santos, also from Brazil, in 1988; Jesus Tomillero of Spain, in 2015; and Tom Harald Hagen of Norway, in 2020.

Benevenuto says the decision has been life-changing.

"I had lived my entire life hiding myself from other people, hiding my attraction to men," he says.

"I had never lived a fully happy life."

- Creating a 'persona' -

Benevenuto remembers the word used in his childhood neighborhood for boys who didn't play football: "faggot."

It made him hate the game. But he played it anyway, trying to fit in.

Then as a 13-year-old watching the 1994 World Cup, he became fascinated with the referees' colorful uniforms.

Instead of playing in his neighborhood matches, he started refereeing them.

"It was a way to be involved in football as a form of camouflage, to create a persona to hide my sexuality," he says.

"What did refereeing give me? Authority, strength. The role of being the guy in charge, the one who sets the rules. It was extremely masculine, despite being a secondary job in football."

He found a passion for it.

Benevenuto made his professional debut in 2009 in the Minas Gerais state championship. He went on to work in Brazil's top-flight league and the national cup, developing a specialty in VAR (Video Assistant Referee).

He earned his accreditation from world football governing body FIFA last year.

Despite his ambivalent relationship to the game, he has found a home there, says Benevenuto, who is compact and athletic, with a rigorous work ethic and no-nonsense style on the pitch.

"I don't love football. That's for the fans," he says.

"But I've learned to like it. Without football, I couldn't referee."

- High price -

Homophobic chants still ring out regularly in football stadiums in Brazil, a country where attacks on LGBTQ people happen on a daily basis.

The sport is still full of prejudice, Benevenuto says.

"Homosexuals are afraid to be themselves, afraid of having problems with fans, of being verbally and physically attacked, of not being able to work because there is so much prejudice among management," he says.

He has had slurs hurled at him by fans and club directors -- though not players or coaches, he says with a measure of relief.

He has no regrets, he says.

"I had never been a complete person. I couldn't have relationships. I was isolated. I lived in fear of being asked about my personal life," he says.

"Now I live openly. And I'm at peace in my relation to football."

raa/jhb/wd/to

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SPORTS

Who owns French football clubs?

For the past 10 years, foreign investors have gradually taken over top-level French football. Out of the 20 Ligue 1 clubs of the 2022-2023 season, 10 are owned by foreign investors.

By Matthieu VlassoulPublished on July 30, 2022

Last June, a press release from Olympique Lyonnais (OL) announced that the club owned by French businessman Jean Michel-Aulas since 1987 would be purchased by American businessman John Textor. The new owner promised to compete with Paris-Saint-Germain's domination, stating in a press conference that he has "invested [his] own funds." Of the 523 million euros obtained, Mr. Textor is already planning on injecting 86 million in the summer transfer window. Mr. Aulas is expected to remain OL's president for the next three seasons, but he is no longer the majority shareholder.

This takeover is part of a pattern that has been observed for 10 years now in French professional football: a wealthy foreign investor coming in to take over a club's ownership.

Ligue 1 club owners
Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux and Metz were relegated this year. Toulouse, Ajaccio, and Auxerre were promoted from Ligue 2.

Ligue 1 club owners

Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux and Metz were relegated this year. Toulouse, Ajaccio, and Auxerre were promoted from Ligue 2.

Club	Majority shareholder	Year of acquisition	Profile

Toulouse FC	Gerry Cardinale	2020	A banker for 20 years at Goldman Sachs, he later founded the New York-based investment firm RedBird Capital Partners.
Stade rennais FC	Famille Pinault	1998	The owner of Kering, a luxury company, and one of the richest men in France. He owns the club via his holding company Artémis.
Stade de Reims	Jean-Pierre Caillot	2004	The CEO of a logistics company, Transports Caillot, based in the suburbs of Reims.
Stade brestois 29	Denis Le Saint	2016	The CEO of Le Saint, a Brittany-based company founded by his father, specializing in the distribution of fruits and vegetables.
RC Strasbourg Alsace	Marc Keller	2012	A former professional footballer who played for France. He played for Strasbourg for five years before becoming the club's general manager.
RC Lens	Joseph Oughourlian	2016	Founded Amber Capital, a London-bsed investment fund. He mainly invests in European companies.
Paris-Saint-Germain	Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani	2011	Qatar Sports Investment, the company that owns PSG, is a branch of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority.
Olympique lyonnais	John Textor	2022	The CEO of Facebank, Inc, a company specialized in "the development of human likeness technologies", including holograms. He is the owner of FuboTV, a streamer specialized in football. Since August 2021, he has invested in football clubs in England, Brazil, and Belgium.
Olympique de Marseille	Frank McCourt	2016	An American business who made his fortune from real estate. The former owner of the LA Dodgers, which he sold in 2012.
OGC Nice	Jim Ratcliffe	2019	A British billionaire living in Monaco. He founded Ineos, a chemicals company. Also owns a Swiss football club.
Montpellier HSC	Olivier et Laurent Nicollin	1974	The Nicollin family owns France's 3rd-largest waste management company. Laurent took over the club after the death of his father Louis, who founded the club in 1974.
LOSC Lille	Maarten Petermann	2020	A former banker at JPMorgan until 2019, he later founded the Luxembourg-based investment fund Merlyn Partners, which he manages from London.
Girondins de Bordeaux	Gérard Lopez	2021	The former president of Formula 1 team Lotus and later of Lille football club. He made his fortune from investing in Skype. He later founded several investment companies and also owns football clubs in Belgium and Portugal.
FC Nantes	Waldemar Kita	2007	A resident of Belgium who made his fortune by founding Cornéal, a company specialized in ophthalmology and plastic surgery.
FC Metz	Bernard Serin	2009	An engineer who bought metallurgy company John Cockerill from Arcelor, specializing in industrial maintenance.
FC Lorient	Loïc Féry	2009	A former banker for Crédit Agricole. In 2007, he founded Chenavari Investment Managers, Ancien banquier pour la banque d'affaires du Crédit agricole, il fonde, en 2007, an asset management company based in London.
ES Troyes AC	Mansour Al Nahyan	2020	Sheikh Mansour is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. He holds the club via City Football Group, the holding that owns several clubs connected to Manchester City.
Clermont Foot 63	Ahmet Schaefer	2019	CEO and founder of Core Sports Capital, a holding company specialized in football. CSC also owns an Austrian club.
AS Saint-Etienne	Bernard Caïazzo et Roland Romeyer	2004	Mr. Caïazzo made his fortune from call centers, and Mr. Romeyer is the founder and CEO of a local company specializing in workplace layouts.
AS Monaco FC	Dmitry Rybolovlev	2011	A Russian billionaire who lives in Monaco, and made his fortune from buying shares in Russian state companies.
Angers SCO	Saïd Chabane	2011	An entrepreneur who started from little and founded Cosnelle, a company specialized in meat distribution.
AJ Auxerre	James Zhou	2016	A Chinese billionaire who founded ORG Technology, a packaging company.
AC Ajaccio	Alain Orsoni	2008	In 1986, he was elected to the Corsican Assembly as an independentist. After more than decade in exile in Latin America, he returned to Crosica in 2008 to take control of the club, as chair of the holding company.

• Various motives: diplomacy, business, or sporting results

In France, the year 2011 was marked by the purchase by investors of two of the biggest Ligue 1 clubs. They had deep pockets and planned to inject financial sums unheard of in the French league. In 2011, Colony Capital, the majority shareholder of Paris-Saint-Germain with more than 95 % of the shares, was losing money. The fund sold 70% of its shares to Qatar Sports Investment, part of the nation's sovereign wealth fund. The nation uses football's soft power to improve its reputation. During the 2010-2011 season, PSG's budget was almost doubled, from 80 to 150 million euros, and has not stopped rising since.

In 2011, the Principality of Monaco sold two-thirds of the shares of AS Monaco to Russian businessman Dmitri Rybolovlev for one symbolic euro, after several refusals. At the time, according to an administrator of the Monegasque club, the princely family did not want to continue to "totally finance the club," whose accounts were in bad shape. The Russian businessman's investments eventually paid off and transformed Monaco into a top club, upon its return to Ligue 1 in the 2013-2014 season, at which point the club's budget was increased by 100 million euros.A decade-long race

While French professional clubs have increased their budgets over the years, the gradual arrival of foreign investors has more than doubled the average budget of clubs in Ligue 1, which have risen from €52 million in 2011 to €116 million in 2022.

Today, the top five Ligue 1 budgets (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco and Lille) belong to teams owned by foreign investors: Americans, Russians, Luxembourgers or Qataris. In 2022, foreign capital will represent three quarters of the total budget of Ligue 1 clubs.

French professional football is being outbid financially by foreign investors, just like the English Premier League or the Italian Serie A, which are also coveted by foreign capital. While this was still impossible 20 years ago, in the early days of football as business, the gaps are widening between clubs in the same division, like the giant PSG and its 620 million euros against AC Ajaccio – which is moving to Ligue 1 next season – and its 8.5 million euros last season, although a relative increase in the budget was confirmed by the club's president. The combined budget of Ligue 1 clubs in 2000 was 915 million euros, compared to nearly 2.4 billion euros next season. The combined budget of Ligue 1 clubs in 2000 was 915 million euros, compared to nearly 2.4 billion euros next season.

Foreign capital represents three-quarters of the total budget of Ligue 1 clubs.
Ligue 1 clubs budgets for the 2021-22 season. In green, foreign-owned clubs, and in yellow, French-owned clubs

Foreign capital represents three-quarters of the total budget of Ligue 1 clubs.

Ligue 1 clubs budgets for the 2021-22 season. In green, foreign-owned clubs, and in yellow, French-owned clubs

Paris-Saint-GermainOlympique lyonnaisOlympique de MarseilleAS Monaco FCLOSC LilleGirondins de BordeauxStade Rennais FCOGC NiceAS Saint-EtienneFC NantesStade de ReimsFC LorientFC MetzRC Strasbourg AlsaceMontpellier HSCRC LensAngers SCOStade brestois 29ES Troyes ACClermont Foot 63Toulouse FC*AC Ajaccio*AJ Auxerre*

100 M€300 M€500 M€700 M€

These amounts make it increasingly difficult for small clubs to keep up with the level of financial competition. For example, Angers SCO, which is experiencing budget difficulties and is under scrutiny by French football's financial authorities, will have to change its majority shareholder in order to reclaim management of the club. On May 18, Saïd Chabane told his employees that he would sell his shares, probably to American investment group GFC, for between 65 and 75 million euros, according to L'Equipe.Buying a club: a risky investment

The takeover of French clubs by foreign capital has followed the same pattern for the last 10 year. Clubs with declining performances (PSG, Bordeaux...) or in a poor financial situation (Angers, Monaco...) are bought by investors hoping to move them up in the rankings.

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These buyouts are not safe investments for investors, but rather bets on the future of the clubs, as was the case with Girondins de Bordeaux, which, despite a large recent financial injection, failed to stay in first division. On the other hand, the 100 million euros in revenue that PSG received in the 2010-2011 season has turned into 556 million for the 2020-2021 season under the leadership of the club's president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, in the form of television rights, along with ticket and merchandise sales.

While foreign capital has been pouring in to buy French professional clubs over the past decade, French investors are losing interest in foreign sports clubs. Under Mr. Aulas' ownership, OL Group did acquire the Seattle Reign, the club where Megan Rapinoe plays. But now, the group is now owned by John Textor.

Matthieu Vlassoul

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

Tunisian comedian threatens to leave country after police attack

Lotfi Abdelli filmed a heated exchange with the police in the middle of his performance at the International Festival of Sfax. His one-man show had to end early.

By Lilia Blaise (Tunis (Tunisia) correspondent)

LeMONDE

Published on August 10, 2022 

The scene was not a planned part of the evening's program. In the middle of a one-man show, on Sunday, August 7, at the International Festival of Sfax, the comedian Lotfi Abdelli filmed himself, on stage, following a heated exchange with plainclothes officers. "Did I insult the police? Did I say mean things?" he asked, phone in hand, using an audience of several thousand people as witnesses, while the general confusion on stage led to the show's early end. The incident was broadcast live on Facebook.

"I am permanently leaving the country... you have stolen the little hope I had," the performer announced the next day. The cancellation of the show at Sfax following a verbal altercation between the performer and police officers has quickly revived the debate on freedom of expression in Tunisia. The Tunisian League of Human Rights issued a statement condemning the police's "interference" in the show and "the attack on the right of expression and creativity."

A provocative comedian with 2 million followers on Instagram, Mr. Abdelli is no stranger to using rude puns in the Tunisian dialect. And he spares no one: not political figures, nor institutions. Though the audience may appreciate it, the authorities are increasingly wary.
'Guardians of morality'

Sunday night, the sketch that started the fire was about Mr. Abdelli's grandmother's unpaid electricity bills. The comedian told off the police, the government, the president and the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG), using his middle finger by touching his genitals. Outraged, the police officers who were present to maintain security threatened to leave the area.

On Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Response Unit Branch Officers' Union, Mohamed Messai, accused the performer of "inciting hatred toward police officers." Another union announced that the police would boycott security for shows that offend morality.Read more Subscribers only Tunisia: 'The presidential project of a new Constitution is dangerous'

However, the tone was completely different from the Ministry of the Interior, which issued a statement the same day pledging that they would continue to ensure security at festivals. The ministry recalled that "an obscene gesture by the comedian" during the show in Sfax had "angered the police," but that Mr. Abdelli and his team had then been escorted to their hotel without incident. Nevertheless, the prosecutor's office has opened an investigation because, according to several witnesses, the performer's producer, Mohamed Boudhina, was allegedly attacked after the show. Police unions have denied this version of the events.

The incident has inflamed online debate in Tunisia on freedom of expression, some lamenting that it is now being threatened. "The police pose as guardians of morality in an already worrisome situation for freedoms," said lawyer Wahid Ferchichi, president of the Association for the Defense of Individual Liberties. He added, "Everyone knows this comedian's flair, and Tunisian audiences accept many things that are considered indecent if they're said on stage. The reaction of the police unions is shocking."
'Look where the country is headed!'

Since the coup on July 25, 2021, through which President Kais Saied claimed full powers for himself by establishing an emergency government, Parliament has been dissolved, the High Judicial Council has been abolished and replaced by a new one appointed by the head of state and civilians have been prosecuted before military courts. This concentration of powers within the presidency was finally ratified in a referendum voted on July 25. The new Constitution, which combines an all-powerful president and religious conservatism, was approved by 94% of voters – with a turnout of 30.5%.

Mr. Abdelli has not hidden the fact that he was in favor of voting "yes" on the referendum. That support did not prevent him, on Sunday night in Sfax, from challenging President Saied. "Look where the country is headed!" he said after his altercation with the police.

The rest of the comedian's summer shows have been canceled by his production team, believing that the comedian is no longer safe. Some fear the return of a police state. Lotfi Hamadi, a commentator with tens of thousands of followers on social media, posted a reminder on Facebook of the incidents that took place in 2013 between the police and Tunisian rappers. One of them, Weld 15, wrote a song called "Boulicia Kleb" ("Cops Are Dogs") and was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting an officer. The rapper was also beaten up by the police after one of his concerts.

As for Mr. Abdelli, he had to cancel several shows in 2020 following a controversy over a joke about the underwear of a female politician, MP Abir Moussi. At the time, the comedian said the president expressed his support and refused any form of censorship.Read more Kais Saied's dangerous plan for Tunisia

Lilia Blaise(Tunis (Tunisia) correspondent)

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.