On Wednesday, Canal+ asks the Versailles Court of Appeal to authorize it to terminate its sub-license contract signed with beIN Sports, an outcome which would oblige the Qatari broadcaster to broadcast and pay, in the middle of the season, two matches of Ligue 1 per week.

A judgment that would go against a decision of the commercial court in August.

Mired for almost 18 months in this unprecedented crisis of their audiovisual rights, French clubs are living under the sword of Damocles of court decisions, without assurances on the amount of rights, their main source of income, at a time when their finances have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The nightmare has been going on since the fall of 2020, and the failure of Mediapro, which promised more than 800 million euros per year for the majority of matches in the French championships.

The Sino-Spanish group stopped its payments in the middle of the season before negotiating its withdrawal from the market, plunging the sector into the unknown for several months.

Jaume Roures at the head of the Sino-Spanish audiovisual group, Mediapro, during a press briefing in Paris, October 21, 2020 FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

For the viewer, the fog was dispelled in the heart of summer 2021 after several court decisions.

To watch Ligue 1 this season, a supporter needs two subscriptions, to Amazon Prime Video, which holds 80% of the matches including the 10 best posters, and to Canal+, forced by the courts to broadcast and pay the remaining 20%. .

A journalist, at the microphone of Amazon Prime TV, before the start of the match of the 4th day of Ligue 1 between Reims and Paris Saint-Germain, August 29, 2021 at the Stade Auguste-Delaune FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

But behind the scenes, the encrypted channel continues to contest a situation that it considers "anti-competitive" and activates all the legal procedures at its disposal to try to terminate its contract... It considers that it is paying too much, at a price fixed as of 2018, at the time of Mediapro's promises, which would have artificially inflated the value of French football.

A price now rendered obsolete, according to Canal, by the inability of the latter to respect them.

"Inequitable"

The Vivendi group's channel considers itself the victim of "unfair treatment" by the LFP: it cannot bear that Amazon recovered, last June, the broadcast of the eight Ligue 1 matches per day left vacant by Mediapro at a price broken (250 M EUR annually), where Canal must always pay 332 million euros per year for its two meetings, this famous "lot N.3" awarded in 2018 to beIN Sports then sub-licensed to Canal.

Photo montage, June 11, 2021, of the logos of the Professional Football League (LFP) and that of Amazon, which has recovered the broadcast of the eight Ligue 1 matches per day left vacant by Mediapro at a knockdown price Martin BUREAU, Angela WEISS, Franck FIFE AFP/Archives

This is the heart of Wednesday's hearing in Versailles, whose decision is expected within a month.

If the encrypted channel won its case in this rare case where beIN and Canal+ are opposed, the L1 would experience a totally crazy turnaround in the heart of the season, because beIN Sports would then have to broadcast two matches per weekend, and especially support the cost.

A Canal + cameraman films the Ligue 1 match between Sochaux and Rennes on March 2, 2008 at the Stade Bonal Jeff PACHOUD AFP / Archives

But "objectively, I do not see very well how Canal + could carapate the sub-license contract", tempers a connoisseur of the file, for whom the encrypted channel is simply trying "to discourage the League by multiplying the recourses".

Canal and beIN hand in hand

This hearing opens a turbulent legal semester: nearly a dozen procedures have been launched in all, beIN Sports and Canal + acting hand in hand on most of them, without success for the moment.

The Paris Court of Appeal, the Paris Court of Justice and the Competition Authority are notably seized of different aspects of the case.

These repeated appeals, "it's Vivendi's strategy, which makes it a matter of principle. But it's a huge waste", regrets a player in French football.

The mess is all the more clear in view of the figures: while he hoped to receive 1.153 billion euros per year for Ligue 1 over the period 2020-2024 at the end of his 2018 call for tenders, the foot pro tricolor must now live with 624 million.

And manage an open conflict with its two historical broadcasters.

© 2022 AFP