According to the Belgian football rights consultant, Canal +, far from coming to the aid of French football struggling with the rights of Ligue 1, undertakes to win the half price.
What is Canal + looking for by positioning itself in this way?
PIERRE MAES.
The formula that comes to mind is “It's Bolloré time”.
Saada (
the chairman of the board of the Canal + group
) speaks but we know that it is Bolloré who decides.
But Bolloré, is someone who is in the power struggle outright.
He shows his muscles.
I even come to wonder if what he did to Stéphane Guy
(Editor's note: dismissed for publicly supporting Sébastien Thoen, himself thanked by the channel after a parody sketch)
does not participate in the same communication at the attention from the football world.
Is Canal + taking advantage of the situation to wash away the affront suffered by French football?
At Bolloré, he certainly has an emotional aspect, a desire for revenge.
But he only has one goal.
What has been called the "remountada"
(Editor's note: the double agreement with BeIN, the Champions League and the Europa League to compensate for the loss of Ligue 1 in 2018 for the current period, 2020-2024)
has cost a lot of money. 'silver.
Now it's time for savings.
The first to do is in Ligue 1. There is an opportunity, we will seize it.
Afterwards, the same thing will have to be done for the Champions League, the Premier League and all sports contracts which have been completely "inflated" by the French context, unique in Europe.
There, the balance of power is completely favorable to him and he shows it.
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There was a benevolence towards football but that was before, at the time of Lescure, of Biétry, slightly manipulated by Darmon, by the way.
I think the League has done a lot of bullshit in terms of managing its relations with Canal +, Quillot in the lead.
It has always come up against the power of Canal +, whether it is in a monopoly situation or not.
In May 2018, they said to themselves: “1) We have the billion, 2) we are rid of the arrogance and power of Canal +”.
Today, they take it in the face.
The hypothesis of promoting Denisot at the head of the League was also part of the clubs in a desire for appeasement vis-à-vis Canal +.
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To what level can League rights decently drop?
In theory, if Canal finds itself alone, without competition, “they” will fix the price.
I don't think Bolloré has any emotions in seeing French clubs pass laps in the European Cup.
For him, it is the “bottom line”
(Editor's note: the lowest level)
that counts.
After the "remount" which cost a lot of money, we are now in phase 1 of the economy plan and everyone knows it.
If he has to lead this phase 1 on the back of French football, he will.
A Gafam or a DAZN, even an Eleven Sport
(Editor's note: a group present in Poland and Belgium in particular)
will come if the rights go down to around 200 million euros per season.
But overall, we know that we will turn around half of the 1.15 billion initially glimpsed, more or less.
Technically, how long does it take to organize the new call for tenders that Canal + is calling for?
First of all, it is not Canal + which decides whether or not to hold a new call for tenders.
The League has never officially communicated on this point.
When we heard about a possible over-the-counter agreement with Canal +, I said to myself that there might still be a legal obligation by the sports code to organize a call for tenders.
Did the League have a waiver?
It was all quite mysterious.
Today, Canal + seems to say that a call for tenders is mandatory.
I'm waiting for the League bell to ring.
At the legal level, something else challenges me, it is when Canal talks about giving back its rights.
However, they bought them from BeIN and are bound by a four-year contract.
These rights are overvalued, they clearly want to get rid of them.
But giving back rights doesn't exist ...
If there is a call for tenders, what are the deadlines?
From the moment the League has made the decision to organize one, it does what it wants.
The time to prepare the documents, to leave enough time for operators to prepare their offers, it takes more or less a month.
In an emergency, I imagine they could reduce that to 15 days.
In the most pessimistic scenario, what does Ligue 1 risk?
Ligue 1 does not risk much.
On the other hand, the most fragile French clubs simply risk bankruptcy.
Canal + has always favored a little old-fashioned airing, with the Sunday evening poster on their most general channel.
From this perspective, it's only the big posters that interest them.
They are not takers of the 300 and some Ligue 1 games.
Listen to Pierre Maes' podcast: "The Business of Football TV Rights".
