It is pitching harder and harder in French football. One week before the resumption of the French Ligue 1 championship, the aftershocks of the cursed call for tenders of 2018, which brought the ephemeral Mediapro onto the market, continue to be felt. Ten months after this bankruptcy, war rages between the Professional Football League (LFP), Canal + and BeIN Sports. The duo own a batch of two weekly matches that cost them 332 million euros per year, the famous “Lot 3”. In 2018, BeIN Sport won this prize. Two years later, she signed a license agreement with Canal +, which has since produced and broadcast the matches.
While the parties are fighting in court, the Qatari launched a cluster bomb on Friday, July 30, during a hearing before the Paris court. Assigned by the Professional Football League which asked him to respect the terms of his contract, in other words to produce the matches and to pay the bills, the lawyer of the television bouquet, Antony Martinez, revealed that BeIn Sports had “Requested a conciliation procedure from the president of the court of Nanterre”. Reason given: the impossibility of fulfilling the next expiry of his contract due on August 5 for an amount of 56 million euros to the Professional Football League.
By placing itself under the protection of the commercial court, BeIn Sports, which is nevertheless a subsidiary of the State of Qatar, suggests that it is in financial difficulty. “BeIN Sports is an independent company which lives on its own revenues”, said a source close to BeIN Sports, making it clear that the shareholder would not rush to the aid of his subsidiary. In order to calm concerns, its CEO Yousef Al-Obaidly wrote to his employees on Friday to reassure them:
“I want to make it clear that the conciliation procedure is not about our solvency – it is simply a measure to protect our interests and find a solution between all parties, we hope. “
From the point of view of Qatar, the situation seems ubiquitous: on the one hand, the Kingdom is backing up PSG – it has spent another 84 million euros in the transfer window -, on the other, it is ready to drop its subsidiary, and incidentally plunge French football into disarray. “It’s abject”, testifies a club president, on condition of anonymity.
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