Faced with the current TV rights crisis in Ligue 1, the president of the FFF Philippe Diallo does not want to remain inactive. This Thursday, he announced the holding of a meeting in early March (between the 1st and the 5th) to try to find solutions and think of a new economic model in the future.
“I wish to bring together professional clubs, the CVC fund, the DNCG (National Management Control Directorate), around questioning the economic model and the governance of French football,” he said While indicating that the broadcasters, Dazn and BeIN Sports, would not be invited. He expressed his initiative to the Minister of Sports, Marie Barsacq, and president of the Professional Football League, Vincent Labrune.
The president of the federation (FFF) Philippe Diallo wants to “avoid shortcoming of clubs” and announced Thursday that he was going to bring together all the actors of professional football to evoke a “crisis” which does not only concern audiovisual rights ».
He was expressed after the FFF executive committee (COMEX) and the day after a Board of Directors of the Professional Football League (LFP) urgently convened to discuss the dispute with the holder of the rights of the Ligue 1 Dazn and in which he participated.
On Wednesday, the LFP assigned its broadcaster in summary proceedings before the Commercial Court of Paris to ensure the payment by the British platform of a financial due date due in February that it threatens not to honor.
“In Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 we have clubs in great difficulty, my role is to try to avoid failures (…) We are not safe that clubs stop at the end of The season, perhaps before, ”said Diallo. “The situation is not good for the credibility of our football,” he added.
“It is the duty of the federation”
“I go in the very first days of March bringing all the stakeholders here to the Federation to share a observation but also for a deeper reflection on the economic model and the governance of professional football,” said the manager.
To initiate a “rebound”, the N.1 of the FFF wants to “expand the spectrum beyond the dispute with Dazn” in which “the League must initiate the discussions and find the solutions with its diffuser”. If he does not envisage a scenario to the Mediapp, which had left professional football exsangue by putting an end during the 2020-2021 season to his contract of one billion euros annually, because “Dazn is not a Actor who would lack resources “, Diallo admits that” dispute makes weigh an uncertainty on the contract which links the League and Dazn “.
The start of the troubles of pro football dates back to “the stopping of the championships during the covid. The crisis situation is not simply punctual but structural, “he said. For him, French football must reconsider its “economic model” which is based “on the one hand on audiovisual rights and on the other hand on the transfer market, the sale of its players”.
Diallo stresses that “some indicators remain positive such as the results of our European cuts clubs and the increase in the stages of L1 ″, but” the image is degraded “. “It is the federation’s duty to take the initiative, without taboo, without focusing only on audiovisual rights,” he concluded by evoking the meeting in the first days of March.