Foot: the arrival of Messi, "extraordinary news" for Ligue 1

The arrival at Paris SG of Lionel Messi, which must be presented this Wednesday to the press, is "extraordinary news for the exposure of Ligue 1 internationally", reacted the president of the Professional Football League ( LFP), Vincent Labrune, in a press release. 

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"To have made this dream possible"

"The arrival of Lionel Messi will increase the attractiveness and visibility of our championship on all continents," he also said, paying tribute to "the strategy of the leaders of Paris Saint-Germain, who enabled the Parisian club to become in ten years one of the biggest franchises in world sport ". "On behalf of French professional football, I wanted to thank Nasser Al-Khelaïfi", the club's Qatari president, "for making this dream possible," adds the former president of Olympique de Marseille.

This signing of Messi comes at a time when French professional football has been facing a drastic drop in the television rights it receives for several months, after the failure of the Sino-Spanish broadcaster Mediapro. It was replaced by Amazon Prime, but for an amount cut in half. And the other broadcasters, Canal + and beIN Sports, are contesting in court the amount of what they must pay for the broadcasting of two matches per day. 

For international rights, the French championship is a dwarf compared to other major European championships These rights are evaluated around 80 million euros per year until 2024, very far from the 1.5 billion euros that touch Premier League clubs, the Championship that generates the most money, or even EUR 139 million from the Italian Serie A (excluding the United States and the Middle East).