Paris (AFP)

The Mediapro group, a Ligue 1 broadcaster on the way to leave the French market, has proposed to the Professional Football League (LFP) to continue broadcasting the matches after January 31, we learned on Monday from a source with knowledge folder.

The Catalan company with Chinese funds, ousted by the LFP for lack of being able to honor its drafts, sent it a letter on Saturday in which it suggests that its Téléfoot channel continue broadcasting the meetings "at least until the end of the season ", according to this source interviewed by AFP, while the League, which has not yet found a broadcaster to recover the vacant TV rights, is facing the threat of" the black screen ", the hypothesis of matches not broadcast from early February.

According to the withdrawal agreement signed in December with Mediapro, the broadcasting of matches by Téléfoot could not extend beyond January 31, leaving the risk of non-broadcast matches in February, in particular the "classic". Marseille-Paris SG from February 7.

This Mediapro initiative comes at a time of turmoil for French football and its broadcasters.

The League has validated the principle of a call for tenders to reallocate its vacant rights, a procedure that may run until February.

And to ensure broadcasting in the meantime, several channels have expressed their interest: Canal +, via a "pay per view" process, but also M6 and TF1, free of charge, as well as , according to the press, the public group France Televisions.

In its proposal sent this weekend to the League, Mediapro also specified that it intended to transfer "all of its income to the League", after deduction of operational costs, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"This proposal can also cover the hypothesis of a partial call for tenders, where part of the meetings would not find a taker," said the same source.

The group led by Jaume Roures, which claimed 600,000 subscribers in October, had initially bought the rights to 80% of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 for a record amount exceeding 800 million euros per year.

But Mediapro stopped honoring its installments from October, plunging French professional football into an era of deep uncertainty while awaiting a new broadcaster.

© 2021 AFP