TF1, big anger after the departure of a star

Grégoire Margotton, Stefan Etcheverry, Isabelle Ithurburu or Thierry Gilardi in the past: there are many TF1 sports journalists who have worked with the Canal+ sports department. However, if the encrypted channel, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this Monday, enjoyed its success, it owes it in part to a former headliner.

Because before becoming one of the star presenters of Canal+ and the first commentator on Ligue 1 on the encrypted channel, Michel Denisot was on TF1, where he presented Téléfoot and commented on certain football posters. His departure had also provoked the anger of Hervé Bourges, the president of the first channel.

For the boss of TF1, he was making a huge mistake

“It was Pierre Lescure (one of the historical managers of Canal+, Editor’s note) who called me in the spring of 1984. I was at TF1 at the time, he recalled for AFP. I didn’t think about it. I said yes straight away. I remember that the boss of TF1 at the time, Hervé Bourges, told me that I was making ‘the mistake of my life’. »

Michel Denisot could only congratulate himself on his choice. Particularly because it brought the French championship and the way of commenting on football into a new era. “ The championship was not broadcast at the time, he recalled to RMC. With my comrade Charles Biétry who was then the head of sports at the AFP, we had exchanged a lot before, wondering what we could do. The retransmissions were quite flat, frozen. I had started to put a journalist on the sidelines on TF1. We wanted to go much further. I asked Jean-Paul Jaud to join us. He was a director on TF1 but a little restricted. The idea was to bring football matches to life as closely as possible, to install more cameras, and to also work on the sound. We never heard the sound of the crampons in the corridor, the ball hitting a crossbar… These are details but they are fundamental to sharing the match with the viewers. »