Canal + stands ready to buy the TV rights to Ligue 1 from Mediapro (photo illustration).
-
CHRISTOPHE SAIDI / SIPA
The deadline is fast approaching.
On December 5, Mediapro is supposed to pay the Professional Football League (LFP) 172 million euros, as part of the contract signed on the TV rights of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. There is very little chance so that the Spanish group, which had not already paid the 172 million planned for October 5, honor this new deadline.
“The issue of deadlines does not make much sense,” Jaume Roures said at his press conference last month.
She has some for the League and the clubs, all the same.
The latter will be in great difficulty if the money does not arrive, and the LFP will surely have to contract a new loan, as it had done to compensate for the first non-payment.
While the conciliation between Mediapro and the League is not moving forward, Canal + stands ready.
According to
L'Equipe
du jour, the encrypted channel could make an offer of around 700 million euros for all the rights of the L1, with possible bonuses if its subscriptions increase.
How could French football have failed at this point with Mediapro?
via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/1irkaBSalG
- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) October 16, 2020
For the moment, the leaders of Canal are playing the clock.
They know they are in a strong position, while the LFP is more and more urgent.
The channel already has two posters a day and has invested to recover the Champions League from next season.
"There is no question of putting the chain in the red by reinvesting at a loss in football," Maxime Saada recalled in
Les Echos at the
end of October.
If there is agreement, it will be on their terms above all.
The case, crucial for French football, is still far from being settled.
In all cases, it is necessary first "that Mediapro accepts to let go of the rights while settling the invoice for the matches diffused and not paid", recalls
L'Equipe
.
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