While beIN Sports has still not paid the amount of TV rights for the broadcast of one Ligue 1 match per weekend, OL have decided to express their anger by sending a formal notice to the Football League professional (LFP). The Lyon club, in a letter addressed to Vincent Labrune, denounces the deal and demands payment of the sums due.
BeIN Sports, which has broadcast one Ligue 1 poster per weekend since the start of the season, has still not paid the bill. And on the club side, it doesn’t work. Olympique Lyonnais is the first to bang its fist on the table and has decided to attack the Professional Football League (LFP), according to l’Equipe.
The club led by John Textor sent a letter to Vincent Labrune, re-elected president of the body, signed by the general director of OL Laurent Prud’homme: “We ask you to undertake without delay all the necessary recovery steps amounts owed by beIN Sports.”
At the time of the negotiation of television rights for the French championship, the LFP and the Qatari channel concluded a deal of 80 million euros per season for the broadcast of one match per day + 20 million in sponsorship. Sums which have therefore not been paid to date, after seven weekends of Ligue 1.
The sponsorship part of the deal “null and void”?
A formal notice which is accompanied by a challenge to the initial deal between the LFP and BeIN Sports on the marketing aspect, concerning the sponsorship contract agreed by the League for the Qatar Tourism brand. This leads OL to “consider the partnership agreed to in violation of our rights as null and void,” Lyon specifies in its letter. By adding the reasons “incompetence of the LFP to decide on the marketing of marketing inventories relating to club properties”, “non-respect of the prerogatives of the Board of Directors”, non-compliance with the distribution rules”, “violation of non-competition rules.
According to our information, the League took note of OL’s letter this morning. She recalls that the deal with beIN Sports was collectively validated by the Board of Directors. She is waiting to see if this letter will be followed by legal action on the part of OL and then reserves the right to respond.
According to her, other clubs have been able to appeal and continue to appeal against the LFP. The body, however, regrets that the letter was leaked to the media just a few hours after receiving it.
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