Paris (AFP)

While legally opposing French football in the TV rights crisis, Canal + managed on Wednesday to secure the co-broadcast of the Ligue 1 Marseille-Paris SG summit on Sunday, a new winning strategic move for the encrypted channel, fond of these posters of prestige.

Canal could not let slip the "Classic" of Ligue 1. At the end of an express market consultation launched on Wednesday for the award of this match scheduled for Sunday at 9:00 pm, the Professional Football League (LFP) accepted the offer of the Vivendi subsidiary, which will broadcast the meeting co-broadcast with Téléfoot, the Mediapro channel, a failed broadcaster that negotiated its withdrawal from the market in December.

The LFP, which had ticked off this date of February 7 for a long time, would no doubt have hoped to have found a new sustainable broadcaster sooner, but it did not manage in time to re-allocate the rights abandoned by Mediapro on a lasting basis, after a call from 'unsuccessful offers organized Monday.

Instead of letting Téléfoot distribute this large poster alone, with no income prospects, it therefore opted for the launch of a consultation on this prestigious meeting, which has sharpened the interest of several channels in recent weeks.

And despite "very high quality" offers from TF1, M6 and France Télévisions, the result was relentless: Canal + was the most convincing, and will broadcast its second "Classic" of 2021, contested in a staggering context for Marseille , who has just laid off his coach André Villas-Boas and is just recovering from the intrusion of supporters into his training center ...

On January 13, Canal + had already broadcast the Champions Trophy between the same teams, also co-broadcast with Téléfoot and which had gathered 1.4 million viewers, according to a source familiar with the matter.

- The conflict lasts -

For club managers, deprived of the public and most of the audiovisual revenues, this co-broadcasting will undoubtedly bring in a precious windfall, but it also risks having a bitter taste.

Because for several months, Canal + has not really acted as the "savior" of French football that many officials were hoping for.

The group led by Maxime Saada has thus refused in recent weeks to negotiate "by mutual agreement" with the League to buy back the vacant TV rights.

He also indicated that he wanted to return the batch of matches that he broadcasts (20% of the L1 for 330 M EUR per year).

And on Monday, he refused to participate in the market consultation launched by the LFP on Mediapro lots, asking for a global call for tenders that would include his own.

At the same time, Canal is being sued by Mediapro for "abuse of a dominant position" on the market, itself filed a contrary summons against Mediapro this fall ... And also sued the LFP in January , to challenge the terms of the reallocation of rights ...

- the League back to the wall -

Can this agreement calm the conflict and bring Canal + back to the negotiating table?

The LFP has in any case given Monday evening a 48 hour deadline to refine its strategy.

Several options are available to her.

It can negotiate the reallocation of its rights over-the-counter (individually) with the bidders of Monday's tender - Amazon, the DAZN streaming platform, Discovery (Eurosport) - as well as with Canal + and beIN Sports.

It is also necessary that the latter are inclined to it, which nothing indicates at present ...

Another possibility: relaunch a global call for tenders including the batch of matches currently broadcast by Canal +, an option that the encrypted channel wanted in recent days.

The hypothesis would be stressful for the clubs, which will have to draw a line on the 330 M EUR per year initially promised by Canal.

But it would at least have the gift of forcing the Vivendi subsidiary to finally play its cards on the table against its competitors.

Because in the meantime, each weekend of the Championship that passes is so much less funds for the clubs.

Thus, most of the 24th day of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, from Friday to Sunday, will continue to be visible on Téléfoot, even though Mediapro has signed its withdrawal for more than a month ...

© 2021 AFP