Canal+ has definitively turned the page on Ligue 1 this season since the encrypted channel no longer broadcasts a single match from the French Championship. And one of its former stars believes that this choice is the right one.
Lacking a choice, the Professional Football League decided this summer to sell the broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 to DAZN and Beinsports. And as the LFP refused to allow the Franco-Qatari sports channel to co-broadcastunconditionally, his match, why not on Canal+. As a result, Ligue 1 has completely disappeared from the programs of the channel which for a long time ensured the promotion and financing of the L1 championship.
And nothing says that the Canal+ group, now listed on the London stock exchange, will one day return to the negotiating table, major investments having been made in the Top 14 rugby, Formula 1 and especially the League champions and the Europa League for which C+ pays 480 million euros per year, creating in the process 18 channels to broadcast everything. Even if he left Canal+ under the conditions we know, Pierre Ménès believes that Maxime Saada and the group's owners did well to turn their backs on Ligue 1 given the behavior of the LFP and the clubs behind it. against.
Canal+ says goodbye to L1, Pierre Ménès applauds
On his Youtube channel, the former star of Canal Football Club says all the good things he thinks of this radical decision by his former employer. “ Personally, I can only regret the shameful way in which the League has treated Canal+ for years. I find that Canal+ reacted very well by withdrawing from Ligue 1 and going all-in in the Champions League. DAZN's dramatic difficulties with Ligue 1 show that Canal was not mistaken, just as Canal was not mistaken in withdrawing its channels from TNT. I think that Canal is sufficiently powerful and is managed by sufficiently intelligent people, so that we do not make them », explained Pierre Ménès, not unhappy to see that Canal+ did not give in to the calls launched by various leaders of Ligue 1 clubs, who thought until the end that the encrypted channel was going to make an offer rather than let football French in crisis.