The start of the Ligue 2 season was marked by acts of protest by supporters of the clubs concerned against beIN Sports, the broadcaster. Despite a few gestures, the Qatari channel will only review its overall weekend programming at the end of the season.
The TV rights crisis did not only impact Ligue 1 this summer. Regarding the second division, beIN Sports has become the exclusive broadcaster of the Ligue 2 championship until 2029, but the programming of certain matches has caused discussion among supporters, who have not hesitated to express their discontent from the start of the 2024/2025 season with lasers, the damage to the broadcaster's control trucks, anti-beIN Sports banners or more recently by sending tennis balls onto the lawns during matches. Contacted by the Team, the editorial and broadcasting director of beIN Sports, Florent Houzot, announced that he wanted to re-discuss the scheduling of meetings only at the end of the current season.
A Ligue 2 match rescheduled for December, and that's it
After acquiring the broadcast rights, beIN Sports changed the day of the multiplex, shifting it from Saturday (when Prime Video broadcast Ligue 2) to Friday, which notably led to this outbreak of violence in the stadiums: “The ultras had the impression of having lost an asset, of going backwards. We are not against them but we try to make them understand that we must try to amortize our investments by satisfying our subscribers with good programming, complementary to our other football offers. There will be no further developments this season. We have already shown openness with two matches on Saturday, and sometimes even three. And to encourage the organization of supporters, we went from programming three weeks in advance to six weeks”developed Houzot. As a result, the Red Star – Grenoble meeting scheduled for Friday will finally be played on Saturday, December 14 since the two clubs want to organize a real operation for the holidays. This will undoubtedly be the only exemption before next season.
