"It's stupor and tremors here" ... What future for the Téléfoot channel?

Julien Bergeaud, Jaume Roures and Jean-Michel Roussier announce the launch of the Téléfoot channel on August 18, 2020. -

• In early October, the Mediapro group did not pay the 172 million euros it should have owed the LFP for the TV rights to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.

• The boss of the group, Jaume Roures, explained this week that he had initiated a procedure to review the amount of contracts down. 

• Behind this conflict, the employees of the Téléfoot channel are trying to continue their work as if nothing had happened. 

Expected by all French football, Jaume Roures' speech on Wednesday was also listened to religiously by the employees of the Téléfoot channel.

Necessarily.

They are still unpacking the boxes that already, the future is darkening.

The refusal of the parent company Mediapro to pay what it owes to the LFP and the willingness displayed by Roures to renegotiate the contracts has left everyone on the buttocks.

"It's stupor and trembling here," breaths one of them.

It was a big surprise when we learned everything in

… Afterwards, it's more misunderstanding than fear.

We are spectators of the case, it is as vague for us as for you.

"

Good luck then, because from our window, it is total fog.

We suspected that committing to paying more than 800 million euros per season for four years for the TV rights of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 was a little madness, but that the tap was cut not even two months later. the beginning of the adventure is staggering.

"Like everyone else, I did not expect Mediapro to fail so quickly," summed up this Friday in

the boss of the FFF Noël Le Graët, who does not hide a "great concern".

"There is no panic yet", but ...

While waiting to know where the conciliation procedure initiated with the League will lead, Téléfoot has no other choice but to navigate on sight.

After his press conference in the middle of the week, the boss of Mediapro visited the premises of the chain.

As a little earlier in the face of the media, he wanted to be reassuring about a way out of the crisis from above.

And like a little earlier in the face of the media, it only half worked.

"He did not reassure us, but not worried more, slips a journalist.

With his proper speech, he kept us mobilized.

"

Another person present at this meeting is a little more alarmist: “I don't know if it's the language barrier, but Roures was not convincing at all.

He added confusion where there was none.

There is no panic yet, but we are all wondering what will become of us in the medium term.

It is uncertainty.

For now, everyone is mobilized, but maybe in a few weeks, people will play their personal card.

"

Jaume Roures during his conference in Paris, October 21, 2020. - JOHN SPENCER / SIPA

Indeed, for the moment, the teams in Paris and in the regions continue to work as if nothing had happened.

Or try, anyway.

The clubs, anxious at the idea of ​​seeing the millions of euros fly away before their eyes, have received instructions from the LFP not to boycott the channel.

Because no one would come out a winner, and maybe, too, to be blameless if the case ever ends up in court.

The only hitch listed, the cancellation at the last minute by the Girondins de Bordeaux of an interview with one of its players live, last weekend.

A way to mark the occasion more than anything else, from what we understood.

“My work continues normally.

Relations are very good with the clubs.

I have not suffered any closure, no boycott, ”assures a journalist in the region.

"We must be irreproachable at the level of work, adds another from Paris.

There is nothing on the cheap.

There were rumors of unpaid freelancers.

“False”, defend the employees we interviewed.

Contract management can be a bit chaotic at times, but everything that is owed is taken care of.

How could French football have failed at this point with Mediapro?

via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/1irkaBSalG

- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) October 16, 2020

Human resources was one of the subjects that Cédric Roussel would have liked to discuss with Jaume Roures.

The deputy LREM, president of the study group on the economy of sport at the National Assembly, decided to conduct hearings to understand how this situation was reached and to help find a favorable outcome.

If he was able to listen to the new executive director general of the LFP Arnaud Rouger on Wednesday, his invitation to the Spanish leader remained a dead letter.

“It's an entire ecosystem that depends on this group.

The financial situation in which he says he finds himself will have an impact on his employees and all the service providers with whom he works, especially for production, he recalls.

A broadcaster sustains a whole economy and that's why we need to hear it.

"The new degradation of a notch in the rating of the diffuser of Ligue 1, Thursday, by the agency Moody's (at level B-, just above the default) does not participate in the ambient serenity.

"Jaume Roures wants to be reassuring?

That it brings tangible elements "

The deputy "does not understand" why the leader of Mediapro refuses (for the moment?) To come and speak.

"He speaks of conciliation and the purpose of our invitation is precisely to exchange with as many people as possible because, and I hope that Mediapro is well aware of this, this is an issue that concerns many people beyond 'purely contractual aspect, says Cédric Roussel.

We are not an arbitration committee but a concertation group.

All parties have an interest in seeing a positive outcome to this situation.

Jaume Roures wants to be reassuring?

Well, this is the opportunity for him to put forward his arguments and to bring us tangible elements so that we are reassured.

"

At the headquarters of Canal Plus, in Boulogne-Billancourt, we observe all of this with great interest.

President Maxime Saada would activate behind the scenes so that the encrypted channel, the big loser at the time of the call for tenders, is perceived as the inevitable emergency exit.

More prosaically, it's always worth being around if any merchandise ever falls off the truck.

“We are aware of being in a position of strength, compared to the League and the clubs, we say internally.

Canal is a more reliable player than ever, which promotes the product and pays.

"

Strategically, Canal Plus - which, as

recently told

it, pushed Mediapro to its limits by first refusing its offer to buy the Sunday night poster for 330 million euros, then by signing an agreement with beIN Sport for recover two games - it would be in their best interest to let the situation get bogged down ... until the Spanish group signed a deal to bring this famous lot 1 home, but on its own terms.

The goal ?

That Téléfoot remains alive (thanks to the money saved), but weakened.

The landscape would then be known and clear, two qualities highly sought after in the TV rights market.

Because if the competing chain were to die out, a new player (Amazon for example) could appear and reshuffle all the cards again.

"He said he would never leave the employees behind"

Far from these considerations, for the moment, the members of the editorial staff of Canal do not rejoice at the misfortune of the colleagues.

"Many were with us and it is a situation that we do not want for them," said a journalist.

We're all a bit lost at the moment.

We don't know what the leaders want to do and we are not at all sure that this will ultimately benefit Canal.

"

Jaume Roures indicated that the procedure with the LFP would be long, in the order of four or five months.

The uncertainty will still last, and Téléfoot employees will have to live with it.

“During the meeting, he was asked [in Roures] if we were sure to do the four years.

He gave a thirty second answer and I still don't know if it's yes or no, ”observes an employee.

Worried, he adds all the same: “He also said that he would never leave the employees on the floor because it is not the style of Mediapro.

"

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