First hitch in the billion-euro plan: historic partner of French football, Canal+ announced Monday to the Professional Football League (LFP) that it would not participate in the auction for the broadcasting of French football. “The conditions are not currently met for the Canal+ group to submit an offer on October 16 and 17,” writes the chairman of the board Maxime Saada in a letter obtained The Team.
The president of the LFP Vincent Labrune, who is aiming for one billion TV rights for the period 2024-2029, loses one of his main potential bidders, put off in particular by a starting price set at 800 million euros per season: 530 million euros. euros for the main prize, with three matches per day including the first two posters, and 270 million euros for the other six matches.
“Your only objective was to exclude Canal+”
The conditions of the call for tenders “completely convinced us that your only objective was to exclude Canal+ and favor Amazon”, writes Maxime Saada. The Canal manager even envisages that the LFP is aiming for “failure” to “free itself from the legal constraint of a call for applications in order to be able to negotiate once again directly and under perfectly opaque conditions the allocation of rights”.
The encrypted channel felt aggrieved after the bankruptcy of broadcaster Mediapro in October 2020 because it believed that its bundle of two matches, paid 332 million euros, was now overvalued compared to what Prime Video paid for the eight matches ( 250 million euros) bought from the failing Spanish company.
The L1 goes from 20 to 18 clubs from next season, so there will be nine matches per day and no longer ten. Canal took legal action, in vain, and was ordered by the courts to broadcast and pay.
“Not a surprise”
Its withdrawal from the call for tenders “is not a surprise” for the sports television rights consultant, Pierre Maës, interviewed by AFP. “That Canal does not make an offer equal to or greater than 530 million euros 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.
Questioned by AFP, the LFP replied that it does not “communicate on this subject during the call for tenders procedure”. 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 shunned the one on the reallocation of the Mediapro lot, failing in October 2020, and finally falling to Prime Video, the Amazon channel.
Agreement with DAZN
“Our relations with the LFP have deteriorated significantly over the years,” writes Saada, who accuses the League of having leaked in The Team 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. You have never stopped penalizing Canal+. » 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.