2023-09-25 18:03:10
The historic partner of French football first renounced the call for tenders, the conditions of which “completely convinced us that your only objective was to exclude Canal+ and favor Amazon”, wrote Maxime Saada, the chairman of the board of directors of the Canal+ group, in a letter revealed by L’Equipe.
Solicited all day and initially silent, the leaders of the Professional Football League ended up responding at the end of the day in a press release in which they “regret
“Our relations with the LFP have deteriorated significantly over the years,” writes Saada, who accuses the League of having leaked to L’Équipe the amounts proposed by Canal for the call for tenders in June 2021. “The confidentiality thus violated allowed Amazon” to obtain “80% of the matches at a low price,” he continues, accusing the League: “You have never stopped penalizing Canal+.”
Hooked for the billion plan
The encrypted channel felt aggrieved after the bankruptcy of broadcaster Mediapro in October 2020 because it believed that its package of two matches per day, paid 332 million euros, was now overvalued compared to what Prime Video paid for the eight other matches (250 M EUR) – today seven – bought from the failing Spanish company.
The L1 having gone from 20 to 18 clubs this summer, there are now nine matches per day and no longer ten.
In its press release, the LFP certifies “maximum transparency to all candidates” and “the integrity of the process”. Above all, she protests against Canal’s methods and “regrets (…) the process of publicly disclosing the terms of this letter, in order to harm the marketing process as well as the interests of the LFP”.
This open-air brawl constitutes a first hitch in the billion-euro plan thought up by Vincent Labrune. The president of the LFP is targeting this annual sum for TV rights for the period 2024-2029, the auction of which must take place on October 17.
He lost one of his main potential bidders, put off in particular by a starting price set at 800 million euros per season: 530 million EUR for the main lot, with three matches per day including the first two posters, and 270 million EUR for the other six matches.
“Not a surprise”
Canal’s withdrawal from the call for tenders “is not a surprise” for sports television rights consultant Pierre Maës, interviewed by AFP. “That Canal does not make an offer equal to or greater than EUR 530 million is in line with what it has always said.”
The auction system unveiled by the LFP on September 12 “is extremely risky. The Leagues normally set a reserve price below which they do not sell, and whether they communicate or not”, adds the Belgian economist.
For him, “with such high prices, there is a good chance that the leaders of the LFP will find themselves all alone on October 17,” he continues.
“Canal is not saying: +I am not interested+, but: +I am not going to participate in the call for tenders+ at this price,” adds Maës.
This is the second time that the pay channel, partner of the French Championship since its launch in 1984, has not participated in a call for tenders for the L1.
She had already ignored the one on the re-attribution of the Mediapro lot, failing in October 2020, and finally falling to Prime Video, the Amazon channel.
Canal still has the possibility of broadcasting L1 for the next five seasons through its new agreement with DAZN, a sports streaming platform which has expressed interest in the call for tenders.
Despite the withdrawal of its historic partner, the LFP still counts on beIN Sports, holder of the rights to the two matches that Canal broadcasts following a partnership between them, Prime Video, the Amazon channel, which broadcasts the eight other matches or possible new players, like Apple, which bought the North American Championship (MLS) for ten seasons, to reach the dream billion.
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