TV rights: the LFP validates a loan in the face of non-payment by Mediapro

2020-10-19T12:40:07.255Z

The French clubs validated Monday in the General Assembly the subscription of a loan of 112 million euros by the Professional Football League in order to deal with the non-payment in October of TV rights by the broadcaster Mediapro, we have learned from sources close to the deliberations. Summoned ...

Summoned in haste, the GA bringing together the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs, as well as the “families” of football (coaches, players, doctors, etc.) “took place in serenity and unity”, commented a participant to AFP.

The subscription of the loan of 112 million EUR was validated "unanimously" by those present, he said, information confirmed by another source close to the debates.

The principle of a loan was acted on Thursday by the Board of Directors of the LFP to find a short-term solution to the unpaid deadline to the clubs, whose TV rights are the main source of income (36% for the L1 in 2018-19 according to the DNCG, financial policeman of French football).

Holder of the major part of the rights of the L1 and the L2 over the period 2020-2024 for more than 800 million euros per year, the Sino-Spanish group Mediapro is in arrears on the payment of installments due in October, estimated by the daily L'Equipe to 172 million euros.

The League, on the other hand, collected 71 million EUR at the beginning of October from the other broadcasters (BeIN Sports, Canal +, Free) of the French Championship, according to sources close to the deliberations.

These latest developments offer a temporary breath of fresh air to the LFP of the new president Vincent Labrune, who had already indebted in the spring with a loan guaranteed by the State of 224.5 M EUR to compensate for the premature end of the Championship for cause of pandemic and to supply the clubs' treasury.

In a letter to clubs signed by Executive Director General Arnaud Rouger last week, the League had indicated that it had "obtained a competitive financing offer".

She said then planned to make a first payment to the clubs last Friday, then another "as soon as the borrowed funds are collected, probably at the very end of October".

Mediapro has launched a standoff with French football to renegotiate its TV rights.

The League refused and, according to the sports daily L'Equipe, seized the Paris commercial court to make pay Joye Media, the Spanish holding company that owns Mediapro.