Faced with difficulties with Mediapro, the Professional Football League (LFP) is trying to find a solution to allow the economic survival of the clubs, which are very dependent on TV rights.

And it is Canal +, the historical broadcaster of the competition, which could well wear the costume of the savior in the eyes of the League.

Explanations.

DECRYPTION

It is one of the most intense soap operas of the fall: the TV rights to Ligue 1, held since this season by Mediapro.

For now, the Sino-Spanish group refuses to pay the bills it has to pay for the broadcast of the competition.

In this file, the shadow of Canal +, historic broadcaster of Ligue 1, hovers again.

At Canal +, these days, we are playing smoothly and we say that we will study all the possibilities, including that of a return to the front line.

But it would be done at the right price, we warn.

Because today, the Covid-19 crisis requires, football is a degraded product.

The stadiums are empty, there are matches postponed and the summer transfer window was without relief.

Telefoot for the moment far from the account  

In addition, audiences for other sports broadcast on Canal + are excellent.

Motorcycles and Formula 1 have even overtaken football in recent weeks, at a much lower cost.

No question, therefore, of putting the financial health of the group at risk, especially since Canal + has not lost subscribers, despite the loss of many Ligue 1 posters. Two and a half years ago, after the surprise announcement of the victory of Mediapro, for a contract of more than one billion euros per year, the encrypted channel had denounced on Europe 1 an unrealistic economic amount. 

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Today, three months after its launch, the Téléfoot channel claims about 700,000 subscribers, still far from the 3.5 million hoped for in the long term to make it viable.

The Spanish group themselves whistled at halftime by not paying their October draft, amounting to 170 million euros, which puts French football a little more in the face.

Mediapro took refuge behind a judicial conciliation that freezes everything.

At the LFP, we are active, but we are for the moment bound hand and foot.

Ferracci wants the return of Canal + and beIN

In this context, a few rare leaders come out of the silence to demand the return of historical broadcasters.

"I believe they put the LFP in an impossible position", denounces on Europe 1 Pierre Ferracci, the president of Paris FC, current leader of Ligue 2. "I hope that Vincent Labrune will manage not to stay in a face- deadly face-to-face with Mediapro. "

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The real negotiation must engage other operators with a little more seriousness than Mediapro

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According to the boss of the Parisian club, "the real negotiation on Friday must involve other operators who have shown a little more seriousness in the past than Mediapro is showing today. It must reintroduce Canal, for example, but maybe also beIN SPORTS and maybe Free in the negotiations, so that we can see more clearly. "

Pierre Ferracci would like to point out that all professional clubs support Vincent Labrune, the new president of the League, engaged in this difficult negotiation with Mediapro. 

A Mediapro-Canal + merger?

The soap opera therefore continues in earnest.

According to our information, a new meeting with the judicial conciliator will be held Thursday afternoon, with an expected result at the end of the month.

"We will not let go, we will go to the end of the contract, we are solvent," Mediapro France confided to Europe 1 on Wednesday evening. It is true that the group recently paid a large hundred million euros to UEFA for the broadcast of the Champions League.

The problem is that the LFP believes that the contract of confidence is broken.

The League will do everything legally possible to terminate the contract and launch, why not, a new call for tenders.

There is a third possibility: Mediapro and Canal + could come together in order to offer a little respite to French football.

TV rights represent around 40% of club budgets, which is huge.

At Canal +, we say we are waiting for reasonable proposals from the Spanish group for the broadcast of the channel or even the repurchase of certain posters, why not on Sunday evening.

There is still a long way to go, but the voice of reason could still prevail.