Guest of France Info radio on Monday, Florent Houzot, broadcast director of beIN Sports, affirmed that the Qatari channel was interested in “the rights of Ligue 1”, still without a broadcaster for the next season which begins on August 16.
“Every morning when I shave, I think about Ligue 1,” said Florent Houzot on France Info. “Afterwards, our president (Yousef Al-Obaidly, editor’s note) says it every day: his strategy is to buy rights at the right price and the right price is set by beIN, we are not going to get into difficulty, (…) but obviously, that (Ligue 1) interests beIN”.
Entangled in bitter over-the-counter negotiations with interested players since the failure of its call for tenders in the fall of 2023 for domestic rights to Ligue 1 during the 2024 to 2029 seasons, the Professional Football League ( LFP) has still not found a broadcaster a few weeks before the resumption of the French championship on August 16. She is working on two possible scenarios in order to break the deadlock.
A plan A: a 100% Ligue 1 channel supported by beIN and distributed exclusively by Canal+, put on “stand-by” in the face of the encrypted channel’s refusal to discuss with beIn an upward renegotiation of the distribution contract which binds around 250 million euros per year, currently.
A plan A and a plan B for the League on TV rights for Ligue 1
And a plan B which would see the LFP create its own channel for a monthly subscription of 25 euros and distributed without exclusivity by different operators. On June 5, during a board meeting of the body, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, chairman of the board of directors of the Qatari group BeIN Media Group, the body’s privileged interlocutor in the negotiations for the rights TV took stock of the progress of the negotiations presenting the two plans on which it is working with the League.
The LFP Board of Directors is due to meet again on Thursday to take stock of the progress of the negotiations. It is still planned to meet the following week for a new progress update, according to a source close to the body. Despite the fact that time is running out and the serious concerns that this arouses among Ligue 1 clubs, whose operations depend largely on the financial windfall generated by TV rights, Florent Houzot wanted to be reassuring on Monday.
“We are able in less than five days to ‘deliver’ a channel that covers the entirety” he explained for Ligue 1, taking the example of the rights to Euro 2024 in Germany, concluded by beIN and UEFA less than five days before the start of the competition.
Mathieu Idiart with AFP Journalist RMC Sport
