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French football crisis deepens as league fails to resell TV rights

An auction fiasco over seasons 2021 to 2024 leaves the finances of Ligue 1’s 20 clubs under severe pressure.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

France’s top-flight football league has failed to auction off four lots of television rights for the 2021-2024 seasons that had been returned by its cash-strapped former broadcaster Mediapro, plunging the sport deeper into crisis, reports the Financial Times.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) said in a statement on Monday night that it had received bids from tech giant Amazon, US broadcaster Discovery, which owns Eurosport, and the sports streaming service DAZN.

None of the bids was seen as valuable enough by the league. “Given that the reserve prices were not reached, the consultations were unsuccessful,” it said.

“The LFP will take 48 hours to determine the next steps in commercialising its TV rights.”

Read more of this report from the Financial Times.