It's no.
For lack of "sufficiently convincing evidence", the Competition Authority rejected Canal + 's complaint against the Professional Football League (LFP) and its associated request for protective measures.
At the end of January, Vincent Bolloré's channel had denounced to the antitrust what it considered to be an “abuse of a dominant position” on the part of the League, via a complaint on the merits.
Pattern?
For Canal +, the launch of a partial call for tenders, relating only to the batch of matches left vacant by Mediapro, would have destabilized the entire pay-TV market and constituted anti-competitive discrimination by imposing unfair conditions on Canal +.
Negotiations for next season
But the time has passed for war. According to sources close to the negotiations, the decision of the Competition Authority should accelerate an agreement with Canal + and beIN Sport. It is urgent: the clubs are currently without a broadcaster less than two months before the resumption of the 2021-2022 season at the beginning of August and must present a coherent budget at the beginning of next week.
Domestic TV rights, initially expected at 1.217 billion euros per year for L1 and L2, fell, for the 2020-2021 season, to around 683 million euros after the failure of Mediapro and the closure of its ephemeral channel. Telefoot. And Maxime Saada, boss of Canal +, said he expected negotiations around an overall annual figure "close to previous cycles", namely an average of 650 million EUR per year. According to the Team, Canal + and beIN Sport have already reached an agreement with French football. An agreement valued at around 600 million euros to broadcast Ligue 1 could be ratified today. A board of directors is to be held today at the LFP.
