RC Lens have handed Yannick Cahuzac the first-team job, but the former midfielder’s first Ligue 1 night in charge at Monaco will come with a regulatory question hanging over the touchline.
SEO Title: RC Lens seek waiver for Yannick Cahuzac ahead of Monaco trip
SEO Description: Newly appointed RC Lens coach Yannick Cahuzac is not yet fully qualified for Ligue 1 management, but the club expect to secure a federation waiver before Friday’s match at Monaco.
Lens turn to Cahuzac after Toppmöller
Cahuzac, 41, was formally presented on Tuesday afternoon as the successor to Dino Toppmöller at Lens. His first assignment is scheduled for Friday evening at Monaco, in a Matchday 5 fixture.
The appointment carries a family echo in French football. Forty-one years after his grandfather Pierre Cahuzac, known as “Cahu”, managed Sporting Club de Bastia, Yannick Cahuzac is set to take charge in Ligue 1.
- Pierre Cahuzac led Bastia to the 1978 UEFA Cup final.
- Bastia drew the first leg 0-0 before losing 3-0 to PSV Eindhoven in the return match.
- Yannick Cahuzac is now Lens’ designated first-team coach at the age of 41.
Diploma issue and expected exemption
Cahuzac does not yet hold either of the qualifications normally required to manage in Ligue 1: the Brevet d’Entraîneur Professionnel de Football, commonly known as the BEPF, or a UEFA Pro Licence.
Lens are nevertheless expected to avoid a match-by-match sanction. Cahuzac has already been accepted onto the 2026-27 BEPF course, one of 10 members in that intake. That status allows the club to apply to the national technical directorate for a special exemption, which Lens expect to receive.
The administrative stakes are significant. Ligue de Football Professionnel regulations, along with the French Football Federation’s coaching rules, permit penalties of up to €25,000 for every Ligue 1 match in which a club uses a coach who is not in regular standing. The maximum fine in Ligue 2 is €15,000 per match.
Recent precedent offers Lens encouragement
The situation recalls Will Still’s time at Stade de Reims. Reims were fined for 23 matches while Still was not yet registered on the relevant coaching course, producing a total cost of €575,000.
Those payments ended on 1 July 2023, when Still officially enrolled in coach training. Cahuzac’s existing place on the BEPF programme should place Lens in a more favourable position as they seek approval.
French law also sets out wider consequences
Beyond football’s disciplinary framework, French sports law provides for more serious consequences when someone carries out paid coaching duties without the required qualifications.
- The law allows for a fine of €15,000.
- It also provides for a possible one-year prison sentence.
- Lens’ planned waiver request is therefore central to Cahuzac’s immediate start as head coach.
For now, the expectation is that Cahuzac will be cleared to stand on the Lens bench at Monaco, beginning a new chapter for the club and extending a coaching lineage that reaches back to Bastia’s European run nearly half a century ago.
