What to Make of Ligue 1's Current Situation

A lack of a sufficient broadcast deal has put many provincial clubs on the precipice of bankruptcy, but who is at fault because of this?

Historically, France is considered by many to assume the 5th position in the top five best leagues in Europe (UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany occupy the other four positions).

Ligue 1 has had one winner of the Champions League in Marseille and clubs like Lyon were frequents in the last 16 of the competition. QSI’s investment into Paris Saint-Germain ensured at least one Ligue 1 side was guaranteed to be in the quarter-finals or beyond.

During the 2000s, despite Lyon’s remarkable seven consecutive league title, the competitiveness was apparent as some title runs went to the final day of the season.

Fast forward to 2024 and the landscape of league competitiveness has changed.

With PSG the only stand out team in the league and in Europe, many fans bat an eye to Ligue 1 and consider it less than compared to the other top four leagues and put it at the level of the Netherlands and Portugal.

It’s got to a point where TV broadcasters do not want to pay the Ligue Football Professionnel (LFP) the money that it’s asking for.

One might ask themselves, “How did we get here?”

Well, I have two reasons why:

1. PSG’s unrivaled dominance in the league

from 2008-2011, Ligue 1 had three different winners, Bordeaux, Marseille, and Lille after Lyon won seven titles in a row.

The league would be shook up forever in 2012.

In 2011, it was reported that Qatari Sports Investments (QSI) would be a majority stake in the club and in 2012, it would become sole owner.

The summer of 2011 saw the arrivals of talents such as Javier Pastore, Thiago Motta, Jeremy Menez, Blaise Matuidi, and Kevin Gameiro to kick off its tenure.

Fortunately, despite the lavish spending, PSG was pipped to the title by provincial side Montpellier in what was one of the biggest success stories in the league.

QSI ensured that a repeat of Montpellier would never happen again.

The summer of 2012 saw the arrivals of star talents such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Thiago Silva and others such as Lucas Moura, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marco Verratti, and Gregory van der Wiel.

PSG romped to four consecutive Ligue 1 titles from 2012 to 2016.

At the same time, the club was punished by UEFA along with UAE owned club Manchester City for breaking its Financial Fair Play rules.

Both clubs lost roster spots in the Champions League and both were fined 60 million Euros each.

PSG’s dominance was abruptly ended when Monaco beat them in 2016-2017 led by talents such as Falcao, Kylian Mbappe, and Bernardo Silva.

To make matters worse for the rest of the league, PSG in 2017 dropped over 200 million Euros for star forward Neymar and in 2018, paid over 180 million Euros for Mbappe.

Simply put, other clubs cannot keep with with PSG’s spending sprees.

Lyon had to abandoned its principles of player recruitment and opted to sign big name players to big fees, but it did not have the same success.

Marseille went down the same path and it has cost them dearly also.

The apparent lack of successful big-money signings for the traditional powers in the league along with less investment than PSG has left these clubs in financial dire straits.

PSG around the turn of the 2020’s also did the unthinkable and signed Lionel Messi.

Lille managed to break the Parisian hegemony in 2020-2021, but the competition at the top of the table looks too few and far between.

Since Mbappe left Paris in the Summer of 2024, PSG are not without any big name superstars.

This has led broadcasters to not give the money Ligue 1 wants for a TV deal.

As a result, seven clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy because the lack of a good TV deal coming.

Zero superstars and non-existant competition has made broadcast companies hesitant to invest in the league, which leads to point number two.

2. Ligue 1 turning its back on Canal +

While the emergence of Sky Sports led to the rebranding of the English First Division to the Premier League, French TV company Canal + (Canal Plus), ramped operation to expand Ligue 1’s reach in France.

In 1991, the company bought Paris-Saint Germain and spent much of the 90’s manufacturing a derby between PSG and Marseille, two teams in France’s two biggest cities, which is now known as Le Classique.

For three decades Canal + and the LFP were loyal to each other. Ligue 1 in the 2000’s had TV rights deals as a high as 400-500 million Euros.

From 2016-2020, Canal + gave Ligue 1 a TV rights deal worth 727 million Euros.

In 2018, the league decided to turn its back on Canal + and try to get a broadcast deal worth 1.1 Billion Euros.

Mediapro, a Spanish company, agreed to a deal worth 1.1 Billion with Ligue 1 to show matches. The company even created a new channel in collaboration with TF1 called Telefoot to host Ligue 1 matches.

In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit and Mediapro could not honor the contract it signed and both parties agreed to terminate the deal.

This left Ligue 1 in a crisis.

Canal +, along with BeIn Sports and Mediapro (Mediapro would give 100 million) collaborated to give the LFP a 600 million Euro TV deal for the 2020-21 season.

Amazon later for 2022-24 swooped up the majority of TV rights for 2022-24.

In a surprise, Canal + stated that it would not bid for TV rights in the 2024-2029 cycle, leaving the league in a hole.

In the same year, Canal + would give French rugby a TV deal extension worth 700 million Euros.

In a statement that seemed like a veiled dig toward the LFP, Canal + stated that:

“French rugby has been one of the pillars of Canal+’s sports offering,” said Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group chairman. “Because it has always been there for us, we will always be here for French rugby. We thank the LNR and president René Bouscatel for the renewed confidence they have placed in us.”

The key takeaway is that Canal + values loyalty. The sheer amount of money the TV deal is worth for French Rugby shows that if one is loyal to Canal +. then Canal + plus will help French rugby tenfold.

With Amazon and Canal + not renewing its TV rights deal with the LFP, on the eve of the season, 7 clubs were teetering on the verge of bankruptcy (and probably still are now).

It was only till DAZN and BeIn Sports stepped to agree to a combine TV rights deal for a total 500 million Euros.

That’s a 12.3 percent decrease in the previous TV rights deal.

With the LFP turning its back on Canal +, they bet on themselves and lost.

Today, French football has been left with a TV deal that is a far cry from what they hoped for, which will leave many clubs in a precarious financial position.

For Ligue 1, a fresh rebrand is all it can hope for. The future looks bleak….