How are football clubs going to get out of the inextricable situation in which their new broadcaster, Mediapro is putting them? While all club presidents repeat that we must appeal to the public authorities, “Contact the ministers”, The state does not intend to put its hand in its pocket and make up for the shortcomings of the publisher of the Téléfoot channel, plunged into major financial difficulties.
“We are not going to intervene with Mediapro to help them pay their debts or guarantee the risks they have taken in the context of a call for tenders. We are not going to intervene on TV rights ”, does one indicate to the Elysee, which judges the method of the Sino-Spanish group “Open to criticism”, see “Deplorable”. “Refusing to pay unilaterally when you want to discuss things is not acceptable”, we continue to the palace.
The Sino-Spanish group, which is supposed to pay 780 million euros each year to the Professional Football League (LFP), has decided not to pay the second bill for television rights, that is to say 172 million euros due on October 6, then requested a rebate. At the same time, he placed himself under the protection of the ad hoc mandate with the Nanterre Commercial Court, a procedure that allows him to save time and to renegotiate with the LFP.
The State will do “everything to avoid the bankruptcy” of a club
The Elysée, which closely follows the adventures of professional football, has been informed of Mediapro’s problems. On October 13 again, Jaume Roures, its Catalan founder, took the trouble to call an advisor at the Elysee Palace, when the week before, the general manager of France, Julien Bergeaud, explained the steps of the company. “They repeated to me what they had said publicly, that the rights were no longer worth the price that had been bought two years ago because of the health crisis, and that the decisions of the LFP, such as the choice of the start of the season or the postponement of certain matches had an impact on the product ”, continues the same source.
How did Mediapro, which knew very well that it would not fill up with subscribers in the first month of its launch, ended up there? “They consider that the sanitary conditions affect their ability to lead the financial round. They have not yet managed to borrow the sums they need from the banks and are having discussions with the shareholder ”, details the Elysee, which assures however that they “Continue to have the same discourse on the economic viability of their project, and that they do not have a strategy to get out of it”.
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