Speaking to the French National Assembly on Thursday as part of an enquiry into the state of French football, Canal + boss Maxime Saada criticised the LFP’s decision to accept a broadcasting deal with Amazon, whilst his company continues to pay much more per Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 games.
“Today, the choice made by the LFP to turn towards Amazon is counter-intuitive. They are limiting the exposure and lack of visibility is worrying. Look at French basketball which has also suffered from a lack of visibility, their value has gone down. We have been discriminated against above all in this Amazon situation, who are paying €700k per match whilst we pay more than €3.5m per match.”
“To improve the value of Ligue 1, we proposed to start the season later, remove the 1 p.m. match slot, avoid putting up large matches on uncompetitive dates, improve documentary production, and provide access to archives. We proposed the organization of an all-star game, to put cameras in the dressing rooms, to put microphones on the referees, we made real proposals to structurally reinforce the value of the championship. We are not associated with the reform projects of French football today, although we are broadcasters.”