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French football is racing to find new broadcast arrangements owing to a bitter dispute with existing media partner DAZN, threatening more financial pain for clubs and undermining the standing of the country’s top-flight league.
UK-based DAZN has said it will not respect its five-year contract with Ligue 1, despite only being in the first year, because it is losing money and has failed to attract enough subscribers.
It also blames the clubs for depriving it of the access to players and games to make the subscription product attractive, as well as failing to combat piracy.
Mediation between the league and DAZN broke down last week.
Ligue 1, which is Europe’s fifth-biggest league in terms of club revenue, has been in almost permanent crisis since 2020 when its then broadcaster Mediapro went bust during the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK group had won the contract over French pay-TV operator Canal+, which was the league’s broadcaster for decades before being dumped for Mediapro.
Since then relations between the league, which is dominated by Paris Saint-Germain, and Canal+ have broken down with the channel filing a lawsuit for damages. Canal+ has repeatedly warned it has no intention of rescuing French football.
Club shareholders, football executives and a senior politician, who last year co-led a damning inquiry into the mismanagement of the league’s business model, have warned of grave consequences from a break-up with DAZN.
French senator Laurent Lafon told the Financial Times that Ligue de Football Professionnel, which operates the top two tiers of football, was on a “cliff edge” with smaller clubs at risk of going bust because of falling broadcast revenues. Some league executives fear DAZN will not pay up the remaining €140mn it owes for this season.
“It’s going to be a very, very difficult road ahead of the league,” Lafon said. “There are going to be few alternatives for a broadcast deal after DAZN.”
Private equity firm CVC is involved because in 2022 it invested €1.5bn in a commercial entity co-owned by the league that markets the broadcast rights globally. That entity recently hired a veteran French TV executive Nicolas de Tavernost to come in to fix the problems.
Canal+ boss Maxime Saada welcomed the hire in an interview this week with French newspaper L’Équipe.
“Having him at the negotiating table is a good way to make me reconsider the Ligue 1 issue. We can [have a] dialogue and I will do so. But that doesn’t mean that I will forget the damage committed against us in a previous contract,” he said.
One option is the launch of the league’s own channel with games distributed through online platforms and deals with broadcasters, say people familiar with the situation.
However, such a project would not solve the immediate cash crunch at some of the smaller clubs as it would require upfront capital investments.
François Godard, an analyst with Enders Analysis, added that starting a channel from scratch was risky.
“If the league wanted to launch their own channel, I think it’s a dead end. You’ll end up doing contracts with Canal+ and DAZN to distribute it, so it’s back to square one,” he said. “And it’s not a business you’re good at as a league.”
Others still hope to mend relations with Canal+, the people said.
“There is nothing desperate or destined to failure about this whole situation,” said a person involved with the league. “But it will take two years of pain to get the house of French football back in order.” The person added: “I think it is possible to mend things with Canal+.”
DAZN is majority-owned by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, one of the world’s richest men. The company has accumulated a range of sports rights and expanded into multiple countries, but its move into French football has disappointed.
The company, which sold a minority stake to an investment firm owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in February, will screen this summer’s Fifa Club World Cup.
DAZN declined to comment. Canal+ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The league said a solution would be found and there would be no blackout of games next season.
