She was born promising to revolutionize French football and enrich it. It lasted four and a half months before laying off all its employees. And since October 20, she has been in liquidation. She is Mediapro, the channel that was to broadcast all of Ligue 1 for three years. According to information from the Capital site, the commercial court of Bobigny pronounced, less than two weeks ago, the judicial liquidation of Mediapro Sport France SARL, the publisher of the channel. This liquidation definitively closes a resounding and appalling fiasco, which deposited the professional clubs Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 on the brink of the abyss.
At the time of his disappearance, Téléfoot declared a liability of 11.4 million euros, much higher than its assets valued at only ... 734,562 euros.
Faced with such a financial mismanagement, the channel had to eject 57 employees, dismissed via a job protection plan.
During a hearing on October 19 before the commercial court of Bobigny.
Julien Bergeaud, the general manager of Téléfoot, tried to justify himself.
He pointed to French football and the fragility of its model, unable to face the health crisis without help.
He also charged the Canal + group, accused of having abused its dominant position as the leading pay-TV operator in France, and the public authorities, which, according to him, should have prevented the pirating of match broadcasts.
In short, all guilty except the directors of Mediapro ...
During its four and a half months of activity in 2020, Téléfoot had a turnover of 104 million euros. A ridiculous amount in view of the group's commitments to the Professional Football League (LFP): 814 million euros per year. Bankruptcy was inevitable.
Mediapro, which acquired in 2018 the broadcasting rights for the French Championship for a record amount of more than one billion euros, concluded last December an agreement for all account with the LFP which protects it from legal proceedings of from the LFP.
Since then, the Spanish group, supported by Chinese capital, has faced major financial problems and is actively seeking new partners capable of injecting fresh money into its coffers.
The group really needs it: this summer, its cash flow amounted to 115 million euros, while it is in debt to the tune of… one billion euros.
At the end of June, Mediapro had to repay 45 million euros in debt, but was unable to meet this deadline ...
