Heard on Wednesday by the Senate commission of inquiry into the financialization of French football, Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP, returned to the “very complicated” negotiations he is currently leading for the allocation of TV rights to the League 1 over the period 2024-209.
The LFP has ruled out “the disaster hypothesis”
Less than two months before the resumption of the championship on August 16, the elite of French football still does not have a broadcaster. But the boss of the LFP ruled out “the hypothesis of disaster”.
“We are working on the allocation of rights, it is not finished, we are in the middle of negotiations. We have a very complicated and very complex subject which gives uncertainty to the clubs,” he admitted to the senators.
After the failure of its call for tenders in the fall of 2023, the Professional Football League, which Labrune has chaired since September 2020, is entangled in over-the-counter negotiations which are not successful in particular because, according to Labrune, Canal+, the historic broadcaster of French football, is currently refusing to participate.
“Canal+ has a strong position on the French market, which is very specific compared to our neighbors, where competition can be expressed more freely. There was a lot of feeling and a strong hurt between Canal and French football,” he explained to the senators.
Ideally, the LFP wishes to create a 100% Ligue 1 channel supported by the Qatari channel beIN Sports and distributed exclusively by Canal+ for nearly 700 million euros annually. But the encrypted channel assures that this plan A was never presented to it, neither by the League nor by beIN.
“We haven’t succeeded so far. I take my share, of course. We do our best. It will undoubtedly be less beneficial for the clubs. But there is a path which is quite simply to turn a theoretical constraint into an opportunity by taking our destiny in our hands with our own media,” he continued, evoking the League’s famous plan B.
Plan B
In this context, the LFP would itself create, with or without the support of beIN, a 100% Ligue 1 channel which it would distribute non-exclusively to Internet service providers (ISPs) and broadcasters such as Amazon , DAZN or even Canal+ and to Internet channel distributors.
“It would be irresponsible not to work on the hypothesis of a channel if there is no broadcaster. We are working on several hypotheses,” explained Labrune.
This plan B channel could be marketed by monthly subscription at 25 euros excluding taxes. An amount that Labrune did not confirm. “The 25 euros seen in the press are working hypotheses and there are several,” atl says
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