PARIS — Lens can play in Ligue 1 next season after the French football federation agreed to replace its ban with financial limitations on the club.
Lens won promotion by finishing second in Ligue 2 but was banned from joining the top flight on financial grounds, with the club short of 10 million euros ($13.4 million) in its budget for the upcoming campaign.
However, France’s Olympic Committee upheld Lens’ appeal which was originally rejected by the DNCG — the financial watchdogs of French football.
On Monday, the FFF said "it has decided to accept the proposal to substitute the sentence of prohibiting promotion to Ligue 1, with a limitation of the amount the club can spend on salary and/or recruitment."