Jaume Roures, head of Mediapro, during a press conference last October in ParisCHARLES PLATIAU / Reuters
Mediapro's French adventure comes to an end.
The Spanish-Chinese audiovisual group and the French Professional Football League (LFP) decided on Friday to end their relationship after months of tense negotiations that have left the clubs in a precarious situation, and hundreds of thousands of viewers in uncertainty .
All this, in the midst of a pandemic and with empty stadiums.
It is the end of a pulse that began at the beginning of October when Jaume Roures, founding partner of Mediapro, alleged the impact of covid-19 in the sector to renegotiate downward the contract for the broadcasting rights of the LFP.
By failing to enter the nearly 325 million euros that the Spanish-Chinese group should have paid this fall, French football has plunged into a crisis that may leave several teams on the brink of bankruptcy.
"Mediapro Sport France and the
Ligue de Football Professionnel
announce that they have jointly agreed the terms for the return of the broadcasting rights of
Ligue 1
and
Ligue 2
[first and second division]
matches
to the LFP soon," Mediapro said. it's a statement.
"This agreement will be submitted to the approval of the Commercial Court of Nanterre in the next few days so that it enters into force as soon as possible."
Cédric Roussel, a deputy for President Emmanuel Macron's party and head in the National Assembly of the Study Group on economics and sport, accused the head of Mediapro of “leaving a field of ruins” in France.
“This is the exit”, he headlines on the cover of his paper edition
L'Équipe
with a photo in which Roures is seen emerging from a Mediapro and Téléfoot trailer.
The exact terms of the divorce, which has yet to be approved by the court, are unknown.
The question is who will take back the rights and at what price.
Téléfoot, the chain owned by Mediapro that broadcasts the matches of the French league, announced to its employees the upcoming cessation of activities.
Mediapro acquired in May 2018 the majority of the rights to the LFP between the years 2020 and 2024 for 780 million euros per year.
The auction reached 1,153 million euros, 60% more than what had been paid until then.
For the first time since 1984 the historic broadcaster, Canal +, was out of play.
For some, this was the true coming-out of French football: they could finally dream of being at the top of the major European leagues.
For others, it was a risky bet and in the long run unviable.
In August 2020, Mediapro made the first payment of 172 million to the LFP.
The payments scheduled for October 6 or the next one, December 5, never arrived.
"The effects of the covid in football mean that the contract of two years ago can no longer be viewed as if the situation were the same," Roures justified in November in statements to EL PAÍS.
At the end of September, Mediapro had availed itself of the protection of the Commercial Court, in charge of facilitating a conciliation between the creditor and the debtor.
This procedure allowed Mediapro to freeze payments while negotiating a downgrade with the league.
But it left many clubs without a vital source of income to meet their expenses.
The LFP obtained a bank loan of 120 million to partially fill the lack of income.
"I want what is necessary to be done to make this international group with Gulf attitudes pay," said Deputy Roussel, a member of La República en March (LREM), in a statement.
To refer to Roures, Roussel drew on a fable by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) about the frog that wanted to emulate an ox and swelled up to bursting with pride: "This is the story of a producer", He says, “that he has wanted to be bigger than an ox, that he has tried to strike a blow and it has gone wrong, and that he leaves behind a field of ruins: wage earners, suppliers, subscribers on the one hand, and on the other hand to sport and to French football without means ”.
L'Équipe
explained that, on Friday morning, Julien Bergeaud, general director of Téléfoot, informed the workers that the chain would stop operating, "without giving precise dates yet."
"Bergeaud told us, very moved and on the verge of tears, that this was over," a Téléfoot journalist told the France Presse agency.
Téléfoot has 150 employees, including 60 journalists.
One question is what will happen to the 600,000 subscribers that the chain claims to have.
Another is how much the Spanish-Chinese company will pay to get out of the contract:
L'Équipe
speaks of a total of 100 million euros.
And another is who will replace Mediapro as the main broadcaster and how much money they will want to pay.
The most cited candidate is Canal +.
Another question is whether the state will intervene to save the clubs from bankruptcy.
“We knew that this contract was fragile.
I think the people who negotiated it were not very serious, "said Macron, critical of the LFP's management, in November.
This week, the Minister of Education and Sports, Jean-Michel Blanquer, warned in a radio interview: "In business you cannot take risks of this kind and then call the State like a firefighter with public money."