March 15 – France’s Professional Football League (LFP) has won a legal battle against Canal+ with a French commercial court ruling that the LFP was within its rights to tender only the TV rights abandoned by Mediapro following the collapse of the rights deal with the Spanish-sino agency.
The court argued that the LFP was not under the obligation to call for a global tender. Canal+ will however appeal the decision.
In a statement, the broadcaster wrote: “The Canal + group continues to consider that any call for applications which excludes lot 3, currently operated by the Canal + group (under license with beIN Sports), would constitute an abuse of the LFP’s dominant position by creating discriminatory conditions between potential buyers.”
In February, both Canal+ and beIN refrained from entering the market after the collapse of the Mediapro deal. For the current season, Canal+ and the LFP reached an agreement, which granted the Vivendi group channel all of the remaining rights for the Ligue 1 season for 35 million euros, in addition to what Canal + already paid for in the base contract.
In a statement the LFP wrote: “The LFP hopes that this decision will be such as to reassure all potential candidates for the acquisition of audiovisual broadcasting rights for the competitions it is organising and allow a calm resumption of discussions by mutual agreement so as to finalise, as soon as possible, broadcasting agreements for the 2021 to 2024 seasons and provide professional football clubs and football as a whole with the visibility necessary to get through this period of unprecedented health and economic crisis.”
Contact the writer of this story Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1734861925labto1734861925ofdlr1734861925owedi1734861925sni@o1734861925fni1734861925