No takers for television rights as Ligue 1 plunges into big crisis

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Chennai, February 3: The Ligue 1 television rights crisis has further escalated after no takers stepped up during an emergency auction that was held to sign new broadcasting deals.

The French football league's organisational wing -- Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) -- has said it will decide upon a new approach for selling its rights at the earliest by Wednesday (February 3) night.

The auction was held for four seasons from 2021 that was cancelled by the previous broadcasters, Mediapro.

Amazon, Discovery and DAZN submitted offers that were not of the LFP’s reserve price expectations.

"Given that the reserve price hasn't been met, the consultations (bids) have been declared unsuccessful. The LFP gives itself 48 hours to define the next steps to take in the commercialisation of its rights," LFP said.

Canal Plus, the former broadcasters of Ligue 1 have now launched a lawsuit against the LFP, arguing that they should also take back the rights that it had licensed from beIN Sports, which is owned by wealthy Qatari businessman and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) owner Nasser Al Khelaifi.

The LFP were forced to cancel their deal with Mediapro after they allegedly failed to make payments upto 300 million euros.

The COVID-19 pandemic that forced the clubs to play without the fans crippled Mediapro's plans of launching a new pay-TV channel called Telefoot.

Mediapro then agreed with LFP to pay 100 million euros so it could relinquish its rights to games, thus paving the way for new bidding rights.

The Ligue 1 that features of top-notch clubs like UEFA Champions League finalists PSG and Olympique Lyon must now find a new way out of this crisis that began in October when Mediapro stopped paying for the TV rights.

Several club presidents have spoken out that the situation could push some clubs into bankruptcy, and many have already begun negotiating with players over pay cuts.