“We are a Ligue 2 club like the others, why don’t we have the right to be broadcast? Is it normal to receive messages from people who can't see the match? » : Thierry Laurey was outraged on Friday November 22 on the evening of the 14th day of Ligue 2but it is a matter which has generally been passed over in silence. Without making too much noise, the FC Martigues saw his “home” match against Laval at the Jean-Laville stadium in Gueugnon be broadcast late and by an unexpected means, directly on the site of beIN Sports via the Dailymotion player and not on television.
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The 0-3 defeat of the red lantern was unfortunately, like the broadcast of the Caen – Rodez match that same weekend, unable to be followed in full by the supporters of the clubs concerned. Which is a real shame when they produced 9 goals out of the 20 scored in this J14 marked by a lack of inspiration from the attackers. A disappointment that is difficult to get over for some, including Jean-Marcsupporter of FC Martigues active on social networks. For him, who nevertheless pays a subscription to be able to watch his favorite club on the Qatari television channel, this is a lack of consideration which could have been avoided, regardless of the technical requirements.
“I believe the match was announced on beIN Max 9 at that time, says Martégal. Ten minutes before the game, I realize there is volleyball instead. At that moment, I contacted the Community Manager of the official FC Martigues account to ask him what was going on… And he told me that we would not be broadcast on television this evening! I'm trying to go to the beIN Sports website, but I can't find the information. There was only live text with the scores, but no news, no links, anywhere. »
“On social networks, they had to share a link via Facebook but only in the 23rd minute of the meetingcontinues the disillusioned Internet user. In a private chat between FCM supporters, one of us shared the link to the broadcast on Dailymotion. At that point everyone connected to it but in the meantime, there was a period of 15 minutes during which we had no image of Gueugnon, nothing at all. This is why we felt abandoned. I can understand that the FCM game is not looking good at the moment, but even so, there could have been an announcement. When even the “CM” of Martigues tells you that we were canceled 5 minutes before the match… At beIN, they must have known that they would broadcast volleyball on the Max 9 channel, that doesn't happen at the last minute especially since it’s a channel that is still serious! But it was not until the 23rd minute of play that the link was officially communicated. Some supporters were content with the multiplex, but obviously you only see a few actions. »
What were the FCM players doing on their phones during field reconnaissance? Maybe they were looking for a connection…
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This failure of the beIN Sports channel adds, according to our interlocutor, to a weariness which is growing because of all the problems that the Sang & Or club is experiencing in 2024-2025: “To tell you honestly, we are playing at Gueugnon 450 kilometers from us, there are a few minibuses of supporters from us who get on but there can't be more than 10, the game is really not a pretty sight … With all this data, we have the impression that in the head of the broadcaster, if we put FC Martigues aside a little, it doesn't matter. Because on top of that, we're not a very big community. We are being overlooked a bit. »
“There are maybe twenty people who will complain, but what does that mean for beIN Sports? They don't even see that. This isn't the first time we've been treated like this. This is mainly because we have no weight. You expect to see the match on TV, and ultimately you end up having to struggle to find a link for a program that you pay for, taking out the laptop on your lap… I'm not saying that it's necessarily a lack of respect, but we are not far from it. If we had played the leading roles, would the treatment have been different? Maybe. But the fact that we are not playing in our stadium, that there are not many supporters, that the atmosphere within the club is a little strange… The whole context means that we can put ourselves a little aside and they don't expect to see us yelling. »
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A service that leaves something to be desired, a lack of expertise also regarding this club which has not known the professional world for a long time… so many factors which could have disappointed Jean-Marc after the immense joy of the rise: “What we also criticize beIN is that there are sometimes errors on certain players and ignorance. Maybe our club is not well known enough, but we have the impression that everything is a bit shoddy. It makes me think of the period when we were broadcast on Monday evenings on Canal + Sport en National, when we were playing for the climb. The guys weren't at Turcan, they were commenting from Paris and you felt a lot of approximations about the club. I think they only came on the last day of the season, the day to formalize the climb to Turcan. This season we again feel the same lack of consideration, of respect from the supporters. It's a shame, knowing that there is already a falling out between other Ligue 2 supporters and beIN. This clearly does not reassure us in the idea we had of a broadcaster specializing in Ligue 2.”
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Involved in this difficult context and beyond its control, beIN Sports was keen to provide details regarding this unfortunate delay which may have spoiled part of the evening for the supporters of the clubs concerned: “Friday 22/11, we had a rich program with L2 but also handball (French women's team), volleyball (Poitiers match) and the Bayern Bundesliga match. Given this rich programming, since 05/11 we have planned the broadcast of 2 L2 matches on the occasion of the 14th day on our digital media. Unfortunately, our technical service provider did not update the programming on our site, which may have led to this confusion. »
“From 7:15 p.m., multiplex presenter Florian Genton announced several times the broadcast of the matches in full on the beIN Sports Max channels and the remaining two on the internet. Our “CM” sent a tweet at 7:40 p.m. to announce the presence of the Martigues – Laval match with free access on our website but, through a combination of circumstances, our service provider who ensures the live broadcast also encountered a problem which caused us prevented from broadcasting the first 20 minutes of the match. »
Following this mishap, the Ligue 2 broadcaster announces that it has learned lessons: “In the future, when we have to make other posters freely accessible on our website, to optimize the dissemination of information as much as possible, we will contact the Community Managers of the clubs to remind them or inform them of the dissemination on digital. We would like to remind you that since the acquisition of the rights to the championship in 2012, beIN Sports considers all L2 clubs in the same way, we respect them all, and we would like to apologize to the subscribers concerned. »
Photo beIN Sports
