INTERVIEW
It's time for a showdown between the Professional Football League (LFP) and its Canal + and beIN Sports broadcasters. The latter refuse for the moment to settle the last installments of TV rights that they owe to the LFP, namely 110 million euros for Canal + and 42 million euros for beIN due to the suspension of the championships due to the Covid-19 . "It's catastrophic for us, the Dijon club," said Olivier Delcourt, president of Dijon Football Côte-d'Or (DFCO), currently 16th in Ligue 1, on Friday on Europe 1.
"The club is in huge trouble"
"It's five million TV rights lost so more than a quarter of our budget. So the club is in huge difficulties like all professional football clubs, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 too," explains- he.
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For broadcasters, this situation is explained by the significant losses in advertising and audience revenues during the crisis. By gear, the decision greatly weakens professional clubs, of which around 50% of the finances come from television rights. "For DFCO, TV rights represent around 50 to 55% of the club's budget. We have a budget of roughly 38 million euros and TV rights are estimated at 20 million euros for Dijon. So the fact that Canal + and BeIn do not pay TV rights at the end of April, this poses big financial and cash flow problems for all the clubs of French football ", continues Olivier Delcourt.
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98% of DFCO employees on partial unemployment
The employees of his club are currently 98% partially unemployed. "This represents between 120 and 130 people" in partial unemployment, specifies the president of the DFCO. But he hopes that the championship will resume "when this pandemic has disappeared and that the conditions will be required for the championship to resume in good conditions". "For the moment, the championship is not over. All the presidents want the championship to go to the end and therefore we are doing everything necessary to make it go to the end," he added.
If the conflict and the epidemic continue, redundancies are not excluded. "Afterwards, we must not predict the future, the main thing is that we come out of this pandemic (...) We must bail out the clubs and find solutions to keep it going," reassures Olivier Delcourt. "If we go to the end of the championship, we will receive TV rights normally and therefore there will be no reason to dismiss."
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Olivier Delcourt also claims to have the support of his players, "ready to make efforts for the club to last". Mediation between broadcasters and club presidents in Paris, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice is currently underway.