This Sunday evening, the 2023-2024 vintage of Ligue 1 was completed, with the new champion title of PSG, the podium and the qualification for the Champions League of Brest or even the relegations of Clermont and Lorient. 34 days, more than 300 matches in total, which we could admire on Prime Video and Canal channels. What will happen next season? Less than three months before its kickoff, scheduled for mid-August, it is impossible to answer this question. Indeed, the Professional Football League (LFP) has (still) not announced an agreement with one or more broadcasters to broadcast the matches of our championship in 2024-2025.
An unprecedented situation, which leaves clubs and viewers in the dark. “I am worried (…), because I find that the time it takes does not bode well,” said Jean-Michel Roussier, the president of Le Havre, Sunday on RMC. The fans don’t know how they’re going to be eaten either. While you had to pay between 37 and 50 euros per month this season, depending on the packages chosen, to be able to enjoy the whole of Ligue 1 on television, the unknown is the order of the day for next season.
The negotiations led by the LFP drag on. After a call for tenders for matches for the next five seasons deemed unsuccessful last fall, the League has since negotiated over-the-counter with interested media. While the English sports streaming platform DAZN seemed to hold the rope for a long time, its proposal of 500 million euros per season to broadcast all the matches would have been considered insufficient.
It would now be the Qatari channel beIN SPORTS which would be in pole position to win the bet, our colleagues from L’Équipe affirming that the channel led by PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi would prepare the creation of a channel dedicated to Ligue 1. RMC Sport indicates that a deal would be finalized to the tune of 700 million euros per season, but on condition that a financial solution is found with Canal. Against all expectations, the encrypted channel could therefore broadcast one or two matches per day – like this season -, transferred by its Qatari competitor.
In a recent interview with Le Figaro at the beginning of the month, Maxime Saada, the chairman of the board of directors of Canal, procrastinated. “We did not participate in the call for tenders. We do not participate in over-the-counter discussions. We do not have an agreement with DAZN or beIN on the continuation. When the process of selling the league rights is finalized, we will notify,” the boss of the French audiovisual group had clearly said. “There is no question of buying Ligue 1 from the scrapheap. This would be good neither for the competition nor for the clubs. I want to be very clear on this point: Canal will not be the gravedigger of French football,” he added.