Newsletter

French football caught in a clash between the Elysee and Canal +

The clock is ticking for French football. Since the defection of Mediapro, fleeting buyer of the broadcasting rights of Ligue 1, the world of football is still waiting for a sign from its savior, Canal +. Alas, the latter is desired, while the commercial court validated the withdrawal of the Catalan group, financially bloodless, on December 22, 2020.

Read also Broadcasting of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches: the Nanterre court validates the withdrawal of Mediapro

With the exception of a phone call made the same day by the president of the management board of Canal +, Maxime Saada, to Vincent Labrune, the president of the Professional Football League (LFP), to ask him for details on the legal terms the withdrawal of Mediapro is radio silence. The latest exchanges date from early November 2020, when the crypto channel made a proposal “Oral”, saying they are ready to take over the French Ligue 1 championship for 590 million euros, with a bonus of 100 million euros, as mentioned in The team. For football clubs, this would represent a huge sacrifice compared to the last tender concluded in 2018, which was supposed to save them 1.16 billion euros per year. Except that nothing has been signed since.

If Canal + is dragging on, repeating over and over that it does not need the round ball, it is because the affair has taken a political turn, taking French football hostage. Because the Vivendi subsidiary has decided to use this renegotiation to advance other regulatory requests formulated for a long time with the State, but not satisfied to date.

Flexibilities in the cinema

With messages distilled “off the record” in the press, the pay television group recalls the devices that are close to its heart. He would like, for example, to return to the VAT regime on subscriptions which prevailed until 2011, and the increase of which cost him 100 million euros. He would also like to obtain flexibility in cinema and series, while platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, which are preparing to enter the French audiovisual financing system, represent, in his eyes, a additional threat. “We have to help us, but we feel that the State does not want to help the only alternative to American platforms”, confirms someone close to the group.

At the Elysee Palace, if we claim to have not received a written missive from Canal +, which would demand such a give and take, the message has been heard. “We feel that the group wants to link the two cases, but the State considers that these files are hermetic. We do not feel compelled to grant compensation in a private matter ”, we say at the Castle, recalling the line set by Emmanuel Macron on November 17, 2020, and which has not changed since.

You have 53.31% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending