French football has plunged further into a deep crisis after an emergency auction for television rights ended without an adequate bid being produced. Thus, the offers of Amazon, Discovery and DAZN failed last Monday when they did not reach the minimum figures required by the French Football League (LFP).
The LFP said that this Wednesday it will decide on a new approach to sell its TV rights. The fear is that, if this issue is not resolved quickly, clubs will have difficulty paying their employees. Keep in mind that many clubs in France are on the brink of ruin.
“Since the reserve price has not been met, the offers have been declared unsuccessful,” said the LFP, which took place until Wednesday “to define the next steps to be taken in the commercialization of the rights.”
The last big blow for the French League
This unsuccessful failed auction constitutes the latest major blow for the LFP, which runs the two main divisions of French football (Ligue 1 and Ligue 2), following the collapse in December of its agreement with Mediapro, signed in 2018, for a total value of more than one billion euros a year since 2020.
But Mediapro failed to make scheduled payments of more than 300 million euros four months after the deal and the LFP was forced to cancel the deal. Mediapro went to court to protect itself from its creditors, including the LFP, before agreeing to pay the leagues 100 million euros to waive the rights.
Key the absence of Canal Plus i beIN Sports
This enabled the new auction. The key to its failure was the absence from the tender of Canal Plus and beIN Sports, the two channels that shared the rights of the previous contract.
On Tuesday, French telecom operator Free confirmed that it will continue to show Ligue 1 matches on its mobile phone service until the end of the season.
The cover of the sports daily L’Equipe offered a stark summary of the current situation with the headline: “48 hours to survive.”