Frédéric Thiriez, president of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), the French football league, has criticised Canal Plus after the pay-television broadcaster complained to the Autorité de la Concurrence, the country’s competition authority, about the early launch of a rights tender.
Earlier this month, the league launched a domestic rights sales process for the next cycle of rights to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, the top two divisions in the country, covering four seasons, from 2016-17 to 2019-20. Bidding for a total of six packages will take place between April 2 and April 4, but Canal Plus had not expected the tender to be launched for another two years.
“These actions obviously have [the aim] of delaying the timeframe of the consultation and to disrupt the process,” Thiriez said in a letter to clubs, according to French newspaper l’Equipe. “Our approach is perfectly fine… These actions illustrate the usual behavior of Canal Plus which has increased its litigation for several years against all audiovisual players and the sports-rights market.”
According to reports, the league is hoping to take advantage of the current competition in the pay-television sector between Canal Plus and beIN Sports, with both broadcasters currently sharing domestic rights for Ligue 1.
Thiriez added: “We decided, in a difficult economic environment for our clubs, to launch this invitation to tender because we have to compensate for the delay in audiovisual rights in relation to other European countries. The challenge is to improve the competitiveness of our game and provide the best possible performance. It is the interest of clubs, broadcasters and also the championship.”