Paris (AFP)

The Mediapro group has given up on TV rights to French football, but its Téléfoot channel continues to broadcast ... until when?

Caught in this paradoxical and uncertain situation, the employees fulfill their mission as best they can, before plunging into the unknown.

Every weekend, the fifty or so journalists from the editorial staff located in Aubervilliers are on the bridge to host the broadcast of the eight Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches on the channel's program.

But since the validation at the end of December of a withdrawal agreement for Mediapro, unable to foot the bill for 80% of French football's TV rights, these employees know that their Championship days are numbered.

The agreement approved at the end of 2020 by the commercial court of Nanterre indeed implies that Téléfoot broadcasts the matches for free as long as no other broadcaster has been found by the Professional Football League (LFP), until the 31st. January.

After this date, it is the great unknown.

"We just have to do the job to the end, we owe it to the clubs. We are indebted to them: everything we had planned to do with them, we did and we continue The completely ubiquitous nature of this situation is that we do the job and say nothing more, "Jean-Michel Roussier, the editorial director, told AFP.

- Pending -

For now, as if nothing had happened, the LFP programs its matches on Téléfoot until the 23rd day on February 3.

Will we go that far?

Possible, in view of the negotiations which are slipping between the LFP and Canal +, the favorite of the resumption of TV rights via a call for tenders whose outlines have yet to be clarified.

Several employees interviewed expect to continue in the coming weeks, while the schedules are ready until the end of January.

"Professionalism" prevails, in the words of these employees.

"Everyone is on the alert until there is a new broadcaster. We do our job on a daily basis," said one of them, another evoking despite everything "a particular state of mind ".

All eyes remain on the LFP, which will have to make a choice on the methods of broadcasting its matches from February.

Mediapro is in any case ready to continue the adventure via its Telefoot channel, according to several sources familiar with the matter who indicate that a new agreement should in this case be concluded between the League and the Sino-Spanish group.

The hypothesis of a "turnkey" takeover of the channel and its technical and editorial resources by the LFP or another operator, for provisional broadcasting, is put forward by these sources, whereas Téléfoot is already currently offering offers to day or week for viewers.

For its part, Canal + also proposed a temporary solution, via a "pay per view" broadcast, a payment per session, on its platforms ... A hypothesis that would undoubtedly put an end to Téléfoot, but it is still necessary that the League is embarking on this risky path.

- "Cheated and sad" -

The future is therefore very uncertain for employees, two of whose representatives expressed the concerns of the editorial staff during the debates in mid-December at the Nanterre commercial court.

They then asked for "assurances" from the leaders, believing that "the sustainability" of the company was "not assured" despite the promise of a "job protection plan", according to the court decision consulted by AFP.

A month later, according to several employees, the outlines of this safeguard plan remain unknown because they will depend on the methods of closing the chain.

If the journalists continue their mission, the bitterness is very present.

Even if some believe that it is "too early" to evoke "the mess" of the creation of the channel, several actions were taken before the holidays.

A minute of silence was observed by commentators at the start of the December 23 multiplex, with host Thibault Le Rol describing the members of the editorial staff on the air as the "joke turkeys".

"We feel cheated and sad, because the adventure was quite beautiful", moved an employee.

“The editorial job, frankly, is remarkable. I think, unfortunately, all of the actors, from the managing director to the freelance writer, got caught up in something they had no control over.”

© 2021 AFP