French Ligue 1 shaken by financial troubles over TV rights

French football is facing a serious crisis due to the lack of offers for television rights for the 2025-2029 period, threatening the financial stability of Ligue 1. The French Football Federation, led by Vincent Labrune, hoped to secure more than a billion euros per season, but the departure of key stars like Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappé made this amount unrealistic for potential buyers.

The main candidates for the rights, DAZN and beIN Sports, failed to finalize a deal, even though the price for the rights was halved. As a result, eight Ligue 1 clubs—Auxerre, Lens, Nantes, Reims, Montpellier, Brest, Le Havre, and Angers  are on the brink of bankruptcy if the situation does not improve. Among these clubs, Brest, which qualified for the group stage of the Champions League, and Lens, which also played in the tournament last season, are particularly vulnerable.

According to @lequipe , eight Ligue 1 teams are at risk of declaring bankruptcy due to there being no agreement for television rights for the next five seasons:

-Auxerre
-Lens
-Nantes
-Stade Reims
-Montpellier
-Brest
-Le Havre
-Angers

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— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) July 8, 2024

The current situation has been exacerbated by the previous failure with the television rights contract with the Spanish company Mediapro in 2020, which was terminated due to legal and financial problems. This led to significant financial losses and instability in French football, from which Ligue 1 has yet to recover.