Eight Ligue 1 teams fearing bankruptcy over struggle to find TV deal

Eight Ligue 1 teams are said to be fearing bankruptcy over the struggle to find a TV deal ahead of the 2024/25 season.

According to L’Equipe and various other media outlets, the likes of Auxerre, Lens, Nantes, Stade Reims, Montpellier, Brest, Le Havre and Angers are all at risk of going bankrupt and financial collapse because of the shortage of funds.

This stems from the league’s inability to secure a lucrative TV rights deal. But despite the currently situation, the season will still go ahead as planned on the weekend of August 16th, and these teams will have to put on their game faces and pretend everything is fine while they scramble to find a solution.

Despite holding discussions with a number of companies including DAZN and beIN Sports, there have been no bids for the primary live domestic packages for the 2025-2029 cycle with there still no agreement in place for a new broadcaster to cover all the games.

Previously, LFP President Vincent Labrune was wanting approximately £1 billion per season for broadcasting rights.

As per reports from France, LFP – the body that governs France’s top two divisions – are considering partnering with Bouygues, SFR, and Orange to create a new TV channel, and to half the price of broadcasting rights. There is still no agreement for this however.

Below is a really good view from TheSportsBoffin explaining the situation surrounding that, Ligue 1, French football as a whole and why it’s in crisis…

Montpellier, Nantes, Rennes and Lens among the French clubs thought to be most at risk because new deal could see income from TV deals fall to less than €6m for winners of Ligue 1 next season

— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) July 12, 2024

He begins: The issues that beset French football go back a long way, they predate the Covid pandemic. We have to go back to when PSG was purchased by the Qataris where French football really has well yeah isn’t well that that is the Catalyst to put French football in the situation it is now so the Qataris buy PSG and okay they pump money in, now bear in mind Monaco and Nice are also owned by billionaires so Monaco and Nice, it’s not as if they don’t have money behind them but here’s the problem Neymar Neymar and Mbappe and and Dembele all being signed on ridiculous transfer fees that basically are just were unrealistic Neymar’s transfer is the reason why this channel exists.

So when Neymar leaves Barcelona and goes to PSG there’s two reasons for this Barcelona were basically trying to were haemorrhaging money at the time and that was one way to stop the money haemorrhaging was to get rid of Messi’s replacement for a quarter of a billion dollars yeah that’s how much he went for was 200 to 250 million depending on add-ons and bonuses quarter of a billion could have bought seven separate countries for that money that was in 2017.

And that is I think one of the key moments where French football was broken another mistake that the French Football Federation and League came up with was scrapping their League Cup, the Coupe La Ligue which has reduced revenues and ticket sales for clubs they did that I think 2018 so they scrap their League Cup get rid of it partly because PSG kept winning it all the time so they scrap that then the Covid pandemic hits and the TV deal collapses.

So currently as things stand only 10 games domestic football are broadcast at the moment, eight on Amazon, two on Canal + that’s it the TV deal collapsed during the Covid pandemic there hasn’t been a new TV deal negotiated by the French Football Federation and Ligue 1 since 2020 they can’t find any takers willing to to spend any money broadcasting.

So the only chance you really get to see French clubs play is in Europe and they’re not very successful in Europe either let’s be honest since Marseille won the Champions League in 1992/93 only two French clubs have made a Champions League final both of them are lost as Monaco and PSG a couple have made semifinals but they’ve not had any success in any of the European Club competitions at all out of the so-call big five leagues in Europe big six if you include Portugal they are the least successful even the Dutch have got more European success than France, so they’re not succeeding in Europe which is the only time the European or even North American audience would really see French clubs play most North American fans will only know PSG because of Messi and Mbappe and Neymar they won’t know the history behind uh Marseille, Lyon, Lille, St Etienne, Toulouse, they won’t know any of these clubs so there’s a lack of brand recognition which is another problem but it’s that lack of TV deal that is killing them.

Plus you’ve got the issues with crowd disorder at French football it’s almost on a level of the 1980s in England doesn’t get reported nearly as enough as it needs to fan disorder is common place low crowd attendances are common place and that is an ongoing theme as well it’s like England in the 1980s it really is like England in the 80s 70s and with the hooligan element or the ultras there’s constant disorder at games, no players want to sign, their clubs can’t afford to sign players, they’re haemorrhaging money and the fact that before next season starts eight clubs could have basically gone to the French Football Federation with us means eight clubs could in theory be thrown out.

Now this is big big problems, basically half the top flight in France is basically insolvent it this is a bigger problem than just France this could be like a contagion for all the European leagues now the French have been very very very very vigorous in bringing in their new spending rules to meet UEFA’s new spending rules very vigorous.

Even PSG now are basically going in a different direction they’ve let Mbappe go they’ve got rid of Messi they’ve got rid of Neymar even PSG have realised even with all their spending and all their financial clout behind them a they’re not profitable and they can’t they would be in breach of UEFA’s new spending rules clubs are haemorrhaging money and the issues as I say go back to when PSG was purchased by the Qataris because they spent money like it was going out of fashion.

They assembled a squad that no other French club could even compete with even Monaco and Nice who have well deep pockets they basically went we can’t attract the same player and Monaco and Nice and Marseille and Montpellier all these clubs have great histories great trophy cabinets but because of that lack of brand recognition outside of maybe Europe or France itself with the North American audience who are obsessed with anything European football they really are people they people say the US and Canada, you know football doesn’t work… it does because more people watch the Champions League than the Premier League in the US, it’s a known thing the viewership figures are ridiculous, the TV deals are worth billions, the French TV deal is worth pennies because there isn’t one and that’s been a problem since 2020-2021 when it collapsed, no one has come along no broadcaster has come along and said ‘yeah we’ll take the view you know we’ll take the rights and we’ll broadcast games both domestically in France and overseas’.

There is a massive problem with trying to get a broadcaster with enough financial out behind them to buy the rights, the French Football Federation and Ligue 1 cannot find anyone.

The quality of football ain’t that great either you look at the French national side right now how many of those players are actually playing in France apart from for PSG, the French team that won the World Cup in ’98 had a lot of domestically based players, the French team that won Euro 2000 had a lot of there was a guy playing for Auxerre for christ’s sake in the 98 winning side, where are the French players playing in France playing for the national side.

Back in the day that the majority of French players played domestically, that isn’t the case anymore, they can’t keep hold of their best talent that gets pinched by all the other European leagues they end up playing all over Europe, they’re not making any money and clubs are basically bankrupt and most of these French clubs haven’t been breaking transfer records, they’re just not making any money.

Because if you look at the pie chart and I’ve looked at this where you know what in what country is the most popular sport and who gets the share of revenues and fan viewership and fans and attendance the UK it’s pretty simple it’s football UK wide then Rugby Union and Cricket, Rugby League and that’s how the TV rights generally go, you look at the team sports and individualistic sports you work out who attends what sporting events how much money spent on merchandise and also TV rights, Germany very similar football is still the most dominant sport, Ice Hockey is actually pretty popular as well, Italy very similar football, ice hockey and Rugby Union, is pretty obvious, motorsport, France it’s a very evenly distributed fans and attendance and viewership then the TV deal collapses so no one’s watching.

And when people say oh foot football on TV the attendances will be low there is no football on TV in France the attendances are still low so it tells you there’s a much wider problem the league has become very uncompetitive only in the last in the last decade I think what was it PSG haven’t won the league like twice in the last 10 to 15 years or something very few clubs are challenging PSG because they can’t financially do it the rest of the French league is basically put in even before UEFA came along their own spending cap going we’re not going to spend any money let PSG waste their money breach Financial fair play do what they want we’re going to financially constrain ourselves to try and protect ourselves, the best French talent gets pinched either by PSG or by every other league in Europe and it’s suffering, fans aren’t turning up, no one wants to buy the TV package and the only time you get to see French clubs outside of France on the TV or even inside France is when the Champions League is on because the Champions League is a different TV rights package completely different and that tells you all you need to know.

So yes French football was in crisis and eight clubs or more in the top flight in France could be bankrupt by the end of August and that’s what seven/eight weeks away we could see half the French top flight pretty much gone done having to reform thrown out the top flight having to form down it completely then disrupts the entire footballing pyramid in France which by the way after the second tier drops off a cliff the quality level isn’t there, the players aren’t being developed cuz a handful of as soon as you’re a good youth player you’re scouted when you’re 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 years old and you’re pinched by big Premier League club, big Italian Serie A club, big German club in the Bundesliga, big club in Spain, potentially a club in Portugal, potentially a club in Holland you might decide to be a bit of a journeyman and play in one of the other European leagues, Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey for example, Belgium, Belgium has more financial stability in their football than France, Scotland has a better TV deal domestically than France.

It is really a real crisis, the French Football Federation haven’t done anything, Ligue 1 haven’t done anything, so the French financial crisis French Club Football is in crisis, it really is, it’s in meltdown and you because PSG have all this money they’ve made the league uncompetitive and that clubs are haemorrhaging money.

I mean this is shown by losing that TV deal has killed French football and they’ve spent a lot of money on upgrading the stadiums for the Euros in 2016, I mean French sport is in crisis they’ve had to you know they’re not going to host the next Rugby League World Cup, they’ve run out of money, there’s been questions over the spending and the infrastructure at the Olympics and potential embezzlement and corruption, the Rugby Union World Cup, they overspent, and yeah French professional sport is in crisis, it really is, and we’ve got to see how this Olympics pans out because this could be another disaster for France.

This is a country that’s going through a lot of social problems as well and it’s born out with the football violence with fans fighting each other and lower tendencies but no, France is in crisis and we have to go back to that moment where PSG is purchased by the Qataris and that equality across the league where it was a very competitive league before then only Lyon had had four League titles in a row which was a record and people saying that was bad for French football at least they were regularly getting to the latter stages of the Champions League and other French clubs were also giving the Champions League and Europa League a decent crack getting to the knockout stages, now apart from PSG French clubs struggle in Europe and even PSG haven’t won the Champions League with all the money they’ve spent with all Messi and Mbappe, Dembele you know Ibrahimovic, Beckham they had Ronaldinho at one point still can’t win the Champions League, with all the talent they’ve had and PSG only been a club since 1970 and they’re not even the biggest club in France when it comes to fan base in history, most French fans hate PSG, nationwide it is hated outside of Paris, French fans hate PSG, absolutely loathe the existence of the club.

So we’ll see what happens we’ll see if if any french clubs do go to the war, we’ll see if a TV deal can be struck or some kind of financial restructuring of the league to make sure that there is a league to you know well there’s a league there come August/September because this could be a contagion that spreads to other leagues across Europe, this is the problem this is not just an isolator to France because a lot of other leagues with the transfers and you know player agents and managers, it’s all an interlinked economy and you know people are saying well this could happen to England this could happen to Germany this could happen to Spain, it could it really could, and Spanish football’s in a financial mess as it is as well their clubs are really buggered financially yet people talk about Barcelona and Real Madrid these these these you know clubs too big to fail look at their debts at some point if the French money bubble has burst a long time ago, not there was much money in French football apart from a handful of clubs with wealthy owners, if France and its top league fails this will spread to the rest of Europe, this will spread to South America and this will become a contagion.

So while I understand you way for bringing in these new spending rules and the whole debate about the European Super League and the pros and and there was a lot of cons to that and the damage that would have done can you imagine if the Super League went ahead it would have killed leagues across Europe stone dead absolutely killed them but Ligue 1 is going belly up because of poor administration and poor club ownership really, because these clubs are haemorrhaging money, they can’t sign players because no one wants to go there, but they can’t afford them and we are at crisis point.

I think the money bubble actually in football may have now finally burst this is basically reminds me of the financial crash in 2008 I was having this very same discussion last week on the train to see my friends got into a conversation with another passenger because the train was late and we were waiting on the platform and I basically said this is what’s going to happen this is what’s going to happen is there’s going to be a financial meltdown in an industry that is equivalent to the banking crash 2007 2008 to 2010 because football has been operating in basically the same way as the mortgage lenders in the banks were two decades ago. They’ve been spending money they actually haven’t got, they have got massive debts in what otherwise should be the most profitable industry in the world.

Football shouldn’t have debt but it does and these football clubs have operated like the dodgy banks did back in the 2000s and it’s coming home to roost and this contagion could spread but that’s my thoughts on it what are your thoughts on the French financial crisis in club football I mean could it spread to other leagues if the French league collapses which it has a very realistic chance of doing within the next six weeks unless a rescue package can be found or a TV deal can be struck even if it’s a cheap TV deal it’s still a TV deal getting exposure we could see this spread and we could see other leagues start to feel the effects.