Time is running out for French football, which sees a sword of Damocles weigh on the future of many of its clubs if the sale of television broadcasting rights is not redirected after the departure of the Spanish operator Mediapro.
Next Monday, the Professional Football League (LFP) will know the offers presented in the tender launched a few days ago to broadcast most of the first and second division matches.
Canal +, which appeared as the ideal replacement for Mediapro, has moved away in recent weeks, with the argument that the LFP has not wanted to renegotiate the lot that they bought in their day, the broadcast of two games each day for 332 million euros per season.
The hope lies in the arrival of diffusers from other horizons, such as Amazon. Otherwise, the crisis can be dramatic.
Many clubs are on the brink of ruin. According to a document from the League, revealed by the daily L'Équipe, the potential losses of French professional clubs at the end of this season will exceed 1.3 billion euros.
Without TV and with a pandemic
Because to the termination of the contract with Mediapro, 830 million for 80% of the parties, the difficulties generated by the coronavirus pandemic are added. Without income from ticket sales or from all the commerce linked to the public, the French clubs register 400 million less income in their accounts for that concept.
Less money in French clubs, but also less money in big European clubs, which in the past spent on transfers in France, something that this season seems less easy. Between 300 and 400 additional million that will cease to enter through transfers, according to the document that the LFP is considering.
These elements give even more significance to redirect the television contract. The LFP estimate considers that, in the best of cases, 500 million will be stopped supplementary by this section.
Achieving a good substitute for Mediapro appears as an indispensable lifeline.
When the League was negotiating the exit of the company directed by Jaume Roures, Canal + made a verbal offer, 590 million, plus another additional 100 million if a certain number of subscribers was achieved.
But since then, the relations between the French chain, the historical diffuser of the French championship, and the LFP have been strained. The Canal + pattern, Maxime saada, has criticized the tender launched and has even denounced it before the courts, which must rule on February 19.
Help from the Elysee
The League has sought the support of the highest levels of the State. According to L'Équipe, he even sought the intervention of the president, Emmanuel MacronBut the current tenant of the Elysee did not come to his rescue.
Macron seems less sensitive to football problems than Nicolas Sarkozy was in his day. The former president, a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) fan, is also a personal friend of Vincent Bollore, owner of Livendi, the main shareholder of Canal +.
According to L'Équipe, Macron – Olympique de Marseille fan – has not wanted to intervene in front of Bolloré to unblock the situation.
This businessman has under his arm several claims to the Government that could have served as compensation for a gesture to save football, such as the reduction of VAT on season tickets or a reform of the rights on the series that allows them to compete in better conditions with groups like Netflix.
But Macron's ear seems less sensitive to their demands than Sarkozy's in the past.
Bolloré does not hide his conservative political views, which have been imposed in the media controlled by Vivendi, which makes a saving intervention by the Elysee hardly viable.
At the moment, waiting to find a solution, Telefoot, the channel created by Mediapro to broadcast the French league, continues its activity And, according to some media, it will do so at least until February 3. Then a precipice looms over French football.