Paris (AFP)

Amazon, the American distribution giant, broke into French football on Friday by sharing the distribution of Ligue 1 with Canal +, with an annual amount of EUR 663 million for clubs until 2024, we learned. from a source close to the deliberations.

According to the distribution adopted Friday by the Board of Directors of the Professional Football League (LFP), Canal + will pay EUR 332 million each season over the period 2021-2024, against EUR 250 million annually for Amazon, which will add an extension to share also the L2 with beIN Sports.

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The Qatari channel, which was in contention for 80% of Ligue 1 matches and 100% of Ligue 2 matches, will be satisfied for its share of two matches per day of L2 (30 M EUR), the rest going to Amazon for 9 M EUR (plus payment of production costs, estimated at 25 M EUR).

The operator Free will keep the batch of extracts "quasi-direct" for EUR 42 million.

In total, professional clubs will share half less than what they thought they would receive (1.2 billion EUR) at the time of the choice of Mediapro, a failing broadcaster whose foray into France turned into a fiasco.

But this flashback, close to the amounts obtained during the 2016-2020 cycle, looks of relief for French football, very shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Strong kidneys -

It is above all an entry with great fanfare into the French football landscape for Amazon, which has entered the sports rights market in recent years via its Prime Video platform, acquiring for example certain TV rights to football in England, in Germany and Italy, or even tennis matches at Roland Garros for the French market.

The strategy of the online distribution giant is mainly aimed at promoting subscriptions to its Prime platform, a service that brings together music, films, series, documentaries and currently costs 49 euros per year or 5.99 euros per month.

The choice of Canal + (a subsidiary of Vivendi) and Amazon, partners with very solid financial backs, should be able to restore a little visibility and stability to the clubs, given the urgency of the situation.

With less than two months of the resumption of the 2021-2022 season at the beginning of August, the clubs must now present a coherent budget on June 14 in front of the DNCG, financial policeman of French football.

This outcome also has the air of personal success for the president of the Professional Football League (LFP) Vincent Labrune: taking office in September, he struggled to resolve the Mediapro impasse in December, to find a temporary broadcaster in February. for the rest of the 2020-2021 season (Canal +) and finally negotiate over-the-counter with interested broadcasters to find a long-term solution until 2024.

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The choice of Canal + and Amazon, ratified on Friday afternoon by a vote of the Board of Directors of the LFP, was favored to the detriment of another scenario where Canal +, beIN Sports and Free shared the L1 and the L2 for 595 M EUR annually, plus bonuses.

The LFP's decision was facilitated by a decision in the morning of the Competition Authority, which rejected an appeal by Canal + against the terms of reallocation of rights left vacant by Mediapro, clearing the legal horizon around the case.

© 2021 AFP