It is a bomb for French football that the boss of Canal +, Maxime Saada, dropped in the Figaro Tuesday evening: his group finally refuses to directly recover the majority of French football TV rights on the market after the sinking of Mediapro. It even invites the Professional Football League to a new call for tenders, calling into play the rights it held until then (20% of Ligue 1 matches recovered via a sub-license signed with BeIN Sports). In short: after having dangled in recent weeks at the LFP 590 million euros annually and a rapid exit from the crisis, Canal + will ultimately not make any gifts. The maneuver is as radical as it is unexpected.
The repurchase of the rights abandoned by Mediapro, by mutual agreement, was it only possible? We can doubt it: as Maxime Saada evokes, it could have been “Legally contestable from a competitive point of view because it would be contrary to the sports code. This specifies that there can only be mutual agreement in the event of an unsuccessful invitation to tender. But there has not been ”. In this quagmire born of the insolvency of Mediapro and the risky choices of the LFP, Canal + is therefore making a radical proposal: a clean slate, we start from zero.
Position of strength
The encrypted channel is in such a strong position that it even allows itself to intimidate French football to put its affairs in order. “We believe that Ligue 1 has been subsidized for many years, Saada explains to Figaro. No broadcaster has succeeded in making it profitable. ” And to add that the “Product L1” has been “degraded” by reducing its exposure with its broadcast by Mediapro in recent months. Even the French championship is no longer as valuable for Canal + now, the channel having turned to other competitions (Top 14 rugby or Moto GP) to establish its offer.
A shame: Saada even shows the LFP avenues for reform, with the reduction in the number of professional clubs. “Can French football still support a system of more than 40 professional clubs, including 20 in Ligue 1?” He thus invites the leaders of Ligue 1 to take example on “The Top 14, a homogeneous and attractive championship”. “The current crisis experienced by French football perhaps creates an opportunity to ask the right questions”, he concludes.
An open door to Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP elected in September, who wanted to put on the table the idea of an L1 with 18 clubs. In this crisis, he too could find his account ultimately: it is the opportunity to accelerate a refoundation of French football according to his ideas, without waiting. This is what Saada seems to estimate too, indicating that Labrune “Is also probably one of the few who can restore confidence.”
Revenge
Because this maneuver is finally a revenge: humiliated during the 2018 call for tenders from which he left empty-handed, Canal + had been promoting its response for two years. At the time, all the leaders of French football congratulated themselves on having finally reached the billion euros annual in TV rights, in the footsteps of other major European championships. The strategy of Canal + then consisted above all in waiting patiently for the Mediapro balloon to deflate.
The Vivendi subsidiary had in fact bet on rationality, refusing to get carried away in the bidding. “We have a logic, it is that of the sustainability of the group and to avoid endangering it by betting completely unreasonable amounts on sports rights”, Maxime Saada declared on France Info the day after his defeat. Two years later, he continues to want to demonstrate that he was right. By setting out again on a call for tenders, Canal + risks little – unless a new, extremely wealthy player arrives on the market, but the League must still trust him – and has everything to gain, by recovering at the end a reformatted product at a reasonable price.
Pay by card
What concrete consequences will the prolongation of the crisis have for the championship in the coming weeks? Does it risk the black screen? Téléfoot, which still broadcasts 80% of L1 and L2 pending an outcome, is supposed to broadcast these matches until January 31. But the chain could play overtime. Canal + will broadcast the rest until February 5, the date of the next payment deadline for the lot it wishes to return.
After that ? While waiting for the call for tenders, Maxime Saada evokes another avenue: making single matches available to viewers, in pay-per-view. A proposal that he will submit to the League: “Of course, Canal + would donate most of the revenue to the LFP, and therefore to the clubs.” Pay-per-view on a trial run for the future? You can imagine anything.
Adrien franque
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