The media rights drama in French football is not letting up as the Professional Football League (LFP) takes one of its key broadcasting partners to court.
DAZN has not been making agreed-upon broadcasting payments to the LFP, the league asserts, and it has taken legal action against the online streaming platform.
According to French sports media outlet L’Equipe, DAZN has only paid 50% of the fees currently due to the league and is holding the remaining 50% in bond.
French reports suggest that DAZN has withheld the money because it does not feel the LFP has done enough to fight piracy and that the league’s clubs have not helped enough with providing editorial content.
In its statement, the LFP asserts: “The LFP, for its part, scrupulously respects all of its contractual commitments and will do everything possible to assert its rights.
“In particular, the LFP has decided to refer the matter to the interim relief judge in order to obtain, as a matter of urgency, an order against DAZN to pay the sums stipulated in the contract and an injunction to perform all of its contractual obligations.
“The LFP intends to firmly defend the interests of French professional clubs, while hoping for an amicable outcome to this dispute, which it hopes will be temporary.”
DAZN stepped in with a last minute deal to secure the lion’s share of LFP media rights back in September 2024, shortly before the 2024/25 season was due to start. The deal encompassed the top-flight Ligue 1 and second-tier Ligue 2, and also involved long-term broadcasting partner beIN Sports.
French football’s troubled media history
The league had been struggling to find media partners, perhaps due to the price tag not equating with the broadcaster’s perceived value of Ligue 1fixtures. For a time it looked like the season would have to start with no deals in place, which would have been financially disastrous for many Ligue 1 and 2 clubs.
The DAZN and beIN deal saw the former secure all 306 annual Ligue 1 matches with eight held exclusively. The remaining 298 games are broadcast across both DAZN and beIN, with the deal reportedly worth up to €500m.
The agreement did not spell the end of the LFP”s media rights troubles, however, as beIN did not sign the contract or make its first media rights payment until last month due to seeing the deal as being more favourable to DAZN, according to L’Equipe.
Though the arrangements in place should cover the next four seasons, legal disputes and late contact signings do not suggest a stable environment for the LFP and more importantly its clubs, most of which rely heavily on media rights payments to stay afloat.
This is also not the first occurrence of the LFP and its media partners having to settle matters in court. Back in 2023, the league previously faced down French pay-TV firm Canal+ and beIN in court over rights for the 2020-2024 cycle.
Canal+ challenge related to the awarding of eight games to Amazon which had previously been held by Spanish firm Mediapro, whose deal with the LFP collapsed after failing to make payments.
This recurring theme in French football business over the past few years shows that media rights remain a continuing thorn in the LFP’s side. If the situation does not stabilise over the coming years, the drama could resurrect the LFP’s consideration of launching its own in-house streaming service.
This could cut out the broadcasting middleman between the league and its audience, though delivering and marketing an online-only product to a generation of fans used to TV viewership could present its own issues.
