The lucrative business behind the Macron charity football matches

TheThe world of football generates a lot of money, but it can also have a kind-hearted side. This has been the general public's view for many years as they have watched the work of the Variétés Club de France charity which, since the 1970s, has assembled football legends (from the generations of Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane and so on) for charity matches, as well as artists such as singer Yannick Noah and politicians. President Emmanuel Macron himself donned his boots just a month ago for a well-publicised game on behalf of the 'Operation Pièces Jaunes' or 'Operation Yellow Coins' charity which helps young people in hospital.

Poor housing, autism, poverty: the causes supported by the matches are more varied than the annual Les Enfoirés concert in aid of the Restos du Cœur food charity, but the principle is the same: using the allure of celebrities to benefit those in need.

Who could then imagine that the money paid by sponsors to appear on the players' shirts in such a match might not directly benefit the underprivileged? Who could envisage a company profiting from granting access to a reception organised by the Élysée on match day? Yet an investigation by Mediapart reveals the existence of a lucrative business established several years ago between the founder of the Variétés Club de France (VCF), sports journalist Jacques Vendroux, and his son Baptiste, who set up the company Ventilo.

For French audiences there is no need to introduce the father of the family, 76-year-old Jacques Vendroux. This larger-than-life figure from sports journalism, who moved from management at Radio France to work for billionaire French businessman Vincent Bolloré's media organisation, and who is friend to politicians and former football stars, has been running the VCF for five decades. It was he who persuaded Emmanuel Macron to join this “group of friends” who come together for charity matches. The latest, in aid of the 'Pièces Jaunes' charity, was on Wednesday, April 24th, in the Bernard-Giroux stadium at Plaisir, west of Paris. Jacques Vendroux, his goalkeeper shorts pulled up to his navel, guided the president by the hip as the teams entered the pitch.

However his son, Baptiste Vendroux, is unknown to the general public: a 33-year-old sports journalist, he works for Prime Video, the Amazon group channel. At the Variétés Club de France match in Plaisir, he followed closely behind his father and the head of state. He did not play in the match and was wearing a suit. This event was not organised by the Variétés, nor by 'Pièces Jaunes'. Instead it was put on by Baptiste Vendroux's own agency, Ventilo Sports, which he set up in 2018 with his friend Tom Rocheteau. He is another with a famous father: his dad is the former French international footballer Dominique Rocheteau, nicknamed the 'Green Angel'. So, behind the charity work, there is a family business.

As shown with this charity event, the small agency Ventilo Sports has been thriving for six years thanks to the activities of the Variétés Club de France. For the match on April 24th, Baptiste Vendroux's and Tom Rocheteau's company was able to charge businesses between 25,000 and 75,000 euros to be associated with the event, thanks to the VCF's renown and the participation of the French president. These sponsors were then given the chance to donate to the 'Pièces Jaunes' cause,  which resulted in a total donation of 57,500 euros. However, the opportunity for the greatest revenue was for the agency organising this match, which has minimal overheads. The game attracted some major sponsors: fast-food chain Quick, supermarkets Intermarché and Auchan, utility firm Engie, and more.

According to documents seen by Mediapart, Ventilo Sports offered business leaders the chance to attend the publicly-funded reception organised by the French president that same evening in honour of the Variétés Club de France. So in addition to having their company's logo on the match shirt or shorts, “premium” partners of the event, who paid 25,000 euros for the privilege, received “two places for the Gala dinner at the Élysée”, as well as “two invitations to the pre-match refreshment with players and officials”, “two seats on the team bus to the stadium and then to the dinner”, “two pitch-side accreditations for the match”, and “two souvenir shirts”. The number of passes for the Élysée dinner was doubled to four for “official” partners, who paid a total of 50,000 euros. Finally, “major” partners - who paid 75,000 euros - were offered “ten places” for the presidential dinner.

So, just how much income did the agency Ventilo Sports generate from this operation? Did the company make even a small gesture later towards the charity for which the match was organised? Contacted by Mediapart, Baptiste Vendroux and Tom Rocheteau, who initially agreed to an interview, stopped responding after we sent our questions.

Given that the shirts featured at least eight sponsors for this match, we can however estimate the earnings for the company at somewhere between 200,000 and 600,000 euros. This is a lot more than the amount directly raised by the 'Pièces Jaunes' charity.

When contacted by Mediapart, the Élysée declined to comment on how places for the gala dinner on April 24th were commercialised or whether it endorsed such a business. Jacques Vendroux, meanwhile, said the decision to work with his son’s agency was made by the Variétés Club de France's “steering committee” – a committee of which he is a member in his capacity as the association’s general manager. “We work with whom we want. What’s the problem? Are we robbing people? Are we killing people?” the journalist from the JDD Sunday newspaper and Europe 1 radio asked dismissively, before ending the conversation (see black box below).

Karl Olive, a Member of Parliament for the ruling Renaissance party and president of the Variétés Club since November 2022, views the relationship between the association and Ventilo Sports as a kind of win-win partnership. “The donations to associations are the result of ticket sales as well coming from the partners that Ventilo finds. The same goes for matches where admission is free, like the one at Plaisir for Pièces Jaunes, with the supporting donation for the Foundation. It was Ventilo that found the partners, part of whose donations helped to increase the financial endowment to the foundation,” he explained.

This is not the first time that Ventilo Sports and the Variétés Club de France have worked hand in hand. On September 14th 2018, just three months after the event agency was created, it organised a VCF match at the Stade de France in aid of the Pierre-Deniker Foundation for research into childhood autism, in the presence of Brigitte Macron.

Events then followed in quick succession, each time working with the team led by Vendroux senior: a match in aid of war veterans on September 27th 2018, followed by another match against FC Gueugnon on October 17th 2018 in aid of the 'Plus de Vie' campaign by Bernadette Chirac, widow of the late president Jacques Chirac. Curiously, this event was announced on the VCF website as early as January 2018, six months before the creation of Ventilo Sports, even though it was supposedly responsible for organising it. In an interview on FC Gueugnon's website, a player from the club mentioned having been approached by Baptiste Vendroux in the spring of 2017, in the name of the Variétés Club de France - not his company.

The timeline of the match in aid of war veterans is equally puzzling, as this event had previously been co-organised by the VCF and the Ministry of the Armed Forces since at least 2015. The added value offered by Ventilo Sports for the 2018 event, which it claims to have helped with, is difficult to spot: the company claims “100,000 euros” in donations that year - 81,000 euros, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces - the same sum as the previous year. In 2015, without Ventilo, the Ministry of the Armed Forces reported “109,500 euros” in donations, then “93,500 euros” in 2016.

A blurring between the activities of the charity and the business

On top of this already blurred context there is further confusion: Jacques Vendroux, Tom Rocheteau, and Baptiste Vendroux are all members of the Variétés Club de France, where they sit together on the “travel” and “gala match” committees, which are responsible for organising charity events. According to the VCF's organisational chart, these two committees do not include any other members. How, then, can one distinguish the lucrative activities of Ventilo, which had a turnover of 218,000 euros in its first fiscal year but which has not published its accounts since, from the charitable actions of the association?

This question is lent greater weight by the fact that the agency itself seems to blur the lines: in brochures aimed at soliciting potential sponsors, Ventilo Sports lists, under “causes supported”, numerous actions carried out by the VCF since 2005 - many years before the company itself was set up. Meanwhile, Jacques Vendroux regularly promotes events organised by his son's company, even using his weekly column in Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) Sunday newspaper, such as for the gala match celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Girondins de Bordeaux football club on May 14th at Bordeaux's Chaban-Delmas stadium.

From Reims (in March 2019), Bayonne (October 2019) and Charleville-Mézières (November 2019) to Poissy (September 2020), Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (June 2021) and Melun (September 2021)... at every major Variétés Club match, Ventilo Sports has been involved. The agency helped organise the first match in which Emmanuel Macron took part, at Poissy, on October 14th 2021, in aid of the Fondation des Hôpitaux foundation.

That event, broadcast live on BFMTV news channel, was unprecedented: never before had a serving president agreed to take part in a Variétés match. However, the head of state, who granted an “exclusive interview” to Jacques Vendroux in July 2019, has a special relationship with the journalist. On March 8th 2018, Vendroux even organised a confidential meeting at the Élysée for the president to seek legal “help” to one of his closest friends, former player turned administrator Michel Platini, who was implicated in the awarding of the last football World Cup to Qatar, as Mediapart has reported.

The company's activities with the French Parliamentary Team

As we revealed, judge-approved phone taps show that before this meeting Jacques Vendroux reassured Michel Platini that the head of state was “very nice”. The veteran journalist told the former president of European football's governing body UEFA : “You'll see, it's going to be very simple. He'll say: 'So... what can I do for you?... You're part of France's heritage,' etc. I'm not worried at all.” The journalist hoped that at the end of the meeting the president would “bring in one of his aides to look after [the legal matter]”.

This is not the only political support from which Ventilo Sports has benefited. In 2022, the agency also expanded its business with the help of another significant footballing partner: the “French National Assembly team”, an informal group created in 2014 by MPs to carry out charitable activities.

Eight years later, in September 2022, the agency, in association with MP Karl Olive, was entrusted with organising a match in aid of the association e-Enfance. The MP, who was one of the team captains, had been elected to the National Assembly three months earlier. The match went ahead despite a boycott by leftwing MPs, due to the involvement of some far-right MPs in the event.

Karl Olive is a former sports journalist close to the Vendroux family who joined the Variétés Club de France in 2002. He became its president in November 2022 after a general assembly held at the National Assembly. During his tenure as mayor of Poissy (2014-2022), a town west of Paris that has hosted several Variétés matches, Karl Olive used the council's resources in aid of the association. “A true celebration for the town and a boost to its image,” the politician told Mediapart.

On several occasions, his council voted to sign agreements with the VCF. During a council meeting on August 31st 2015, Karl Olive was careful to abstain from voting - although he did participate in the debates, according to the minutes of the meeting - and made clear his status as a member of the Variétés Club de France.

However, on October 16th 2015, two months after recusing himself from the issue at the town council, Karl Olive got the department council governing the département or county of Yvelines, on which he served as vice-president from 2015 to 2022, to vote to give the association a grant for running costs. According to official minutes, over the years the elected official took part in other votes on funding Variétés. For instance, on February 7th 2020, Karl Olive voted on a resolution, which he had proposed, granting a subsidy of 20,000 euros to the association. This is shown by minutes from the département's council. When asked why he had not recused himself from these votes, the MP that he was not president of the VCF “at that time”.

Disguised lobbying at the National Assembly

In partnering with the “French National Assembly team”, Ventilo Sports wanted to establish a “Partners' Club” to allow “private entities” to invest in solidarity projects, as well as to “foster discussions between decision-makers and football stakeholders”, according to a company document seen by Mediapart. “I've never heard anything about this,” responded Karl Olive when questioned. “Ventilo never asked me to put any of my colleagues in touch with any specific partner.”

Through this initiative, which looks like a form of disguised lobbying, the agency offered companies the opportunity to take part in several training sessions or evening gatherings with Parliamentarians in exchange for a fixed sum of 30,000 euros.

Among the partners for the September 2022 match were digital giants Google, Meta, and TikTok, as well as the French start-up Sorare, a sports entertainment platform whose activities involving cryptocurrencies have been closely monitored by France's gaming authority the Autorité Nationale des Jeux and which have resulted in new legislation. In November 2022, this company took advantage of the partnership to invite several football-loving MPs to watch the Champions League match between Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) at its offices, according to Mediapart's information. Sorare did not respond when approached for comment.

Ventilo Sports' connections with the political sphere have also opened up international opportunities. After successfully organising an initial match in February at Conakry, Guinea, in partnership with the Variétés Club de France and backed by funding from Dutch oil company Vivo Energy – a subsidiary of Shell - Ventilo is set to repeat the experience in Kinshasa on December 3rd 2024.

This gala match was formally agreed by the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, during his official visit to Paris from April 28th to April 30th, following a meeting organised by the French diplomatic service with Ventilo's young bosses. This meeting was followed by a joint visit to the French national team's training centre at Clairefontaine, south-west of Paris. Celebrating this partnership with the Congolese President, Baptiste Vendroux posted on social media: “We rely on the involvement of companies to support us in this endeavour.” 

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• The original French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter