The Professional Football League (LFP) announced Monday that it had approved the subscription of a loan guaranteed by the French state to compensate for the shortfall in TV rights after the final cessation of the championship because of the coronavirus. Its amount is estimated by several sources at 225 million euros. Meeting in a general assembly in the afternoon, the 40 Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs "adopted a resolution allowing the LFP to contract a state guaranteed loan (PGE) from its banking establishment", a announced the LFP in a press release.
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The amount of this loan, which corresponds to the television rights not paid due to the cessation of the championship, is 224.5 million euros, we learned from a source close to the file, confirming the figures advanced by the daily L'Equipe . "Thanks to this loan, the LFP will be able to pay the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs all of the sums still to be collected for audiovisual rights for the 2019-2020 season," said the LFP.
The end of the championship puts the clubs in financial difficulty
With the final cessation of the championship, pronounced Thursday, all the television rights payments expected by the end of the season will not indeed land in the coffers of clubs, deprived of matches for at least four months by the end of July. The state guaranteed loan scheme (PGE), set up at the end of March by the government, allows companies in difficulty due to the coronavirus epidemic to take out a loan with the guarantee that in case of non-repayment , the State will assume the major part of the rest of the credit to be reimbursed. It has committed to guarantee up to 300 billion euros in loans.
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Several clubs, which have also applied the partial activity system since the start of the crisis, have already taken out individually guaranteed loans.