In French football, you should have a fairly powerful phone battery at the moment. In full containment, exchanges are increasing between the Professional Football League (LFP), the French Federation (FFF), clubs and broadcasters. In question: the refusal of Canal + to pay the next installment of 110 million euros, scheduled for April 5, to the League. This is an amount linked to the reputation of the clubs.
The largest teams in the French Championship (Paris, Marseille, Lyon) are therefore more impacted than more modest teams, such as Brest or Nîmes. Since this weekend and again yesterday, Vincent Bolloré (Vivendi, parent company of Canal) and Noël Le Graët (FFF), or Didier Quillot (LFP) and Maxime Saada (Canal +), have not stopped talking with the directors financial companies each time present in the conference call.
Don't play personally
The most powerful leaders of L 1 are the most upset against the decision of the encrypted chain, which takes the risk of getting angry in the long term with clubs which it will continue to broadcast next season, it which bought the lot 3 to BeIN (match on Saturday 9 p.m. and Sunday 5 p.m.).
To continue to negotiate, a working group is set up by the League, whose final composition will be validated Friday by the office of the body. It is a question of not reproducing personal initiatives, such as that of Bernard Caïazzo, the president of the Premier League union, who had the idea of a steering committee without the president of the League, Nathalie Boy de la Tour. Inevitably, he had to abandon this very personal project.
The goal is now to find common ground on the matches already broadcast by Canal + this season. “Nothing in the contract says that the deadlines are linked to broadcast matches. There is a broadcast schedule and a schedule of payment deadlines that have nothing to do with it, ”said the encrypted channel, on condition of anonymity, to AFP.
"Canal + is not a bank"
This is the sinews of war: for the League, Canal + owes at least 42 million euros out of the 110 planned, in proportion to the meetings that have already been broadcast. She says the law is in her favor: any product consumed must be paid for. On June 5, Canal must pay a final installment to the LFP of 85 million euros, this time for the final ranking (little chance that the championship will be finished on this date) and again for notoriety.
“In the event of force majeure, when the matches are no longer delivered, payments are suspended. There, we are in the middle of a force majeure ”, underlines again the direction of the encrypted chain. “We strictly apply the contract and we don't see why we would do otherwise: Canal + is not a bank. "
Broadcasters think of next move
Faced with the lack of image and lack of solidarity of the audiovisual group - on social networks, subscribers claim reimbursement of their monthly receipt -, Canal could soon find itself obliged to pay at least part of the bill.
For its part, BeIN (201 million euros per season for L 1 and L 2) did not give a clear and definite answer on its will to discharge its due whereas the professional championships in France are discontinued since March 13. The chain of Qatar owes to the LFP 42 million euros on April 5.
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Broadcasters are also thinking about the following: Ligue 1 could resume in camera and at no charge in a picked schedule. Empty stands and multiplex matches do not have the same price. They thus want to renegotiate the sums which they have left to pay if one day soccer returns to the field.