TV rights: the truths of the LOSC owner on Nasser al-Khelaïfi and the clash of July 14, 2024

Since the video of the heated meeting of July 14, 2024 led, most of the presidents of Ligue 1 have been shooting in their legs. The most virulent was of course the Lyonnais John Textor, strongly annoyed by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. The Paris Saint-Germain boss is accused of having abused his double cap of pattern of the club of the capital and beIN SPORTSbut today, a man that we almost never hear in the media came out of silence. Owner of the LOSC, Maarten Petermann brought a little nuances to this debate in an interview with The team*.

Represented by its president Olivier Létang during discussions on TV rights, Petermann nevertheless keeps a careful eye on the situation. And according to him, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi is not necessarily the villain little duck of the band. Before returning to this explosive meeting of July 14, 2024, the Lille leader first explained that the tensions of this meeting were undoubtedly born a week earlier, when LFP Media presented the two options she had for the TV rights: namely a Dazn offer of € 275 million annual net over five years for 8 games and the creation of a 100% L1 channel by the League. Faced with the uncertainties of income related to the second option, the first is logically privileged. But faced with the derisory amount proposed by Dazn, the L1 bosses then tried to obtain a better proposal. What they succeeded with an amount of € 310 million annually. There remained the problem of the ninth unsold game.

Nak preferred Amazon …

According to Petermann, Dazn said he did not have the money and Amazon only offered € 65 million, when the L1 hoped € 100 million. It was then that everyone turned to Nak and BeIN Sports. A meeting followed in London between BeIN Sport and certain leaders of French football (Nak, Longoria, Rivère, Pertermann and Labrune). “The role played by Nasser at that time is a bit confused today in the media. But it was the clubs that pushed BeIN to make an offer after understanding on July 5 that Dazn did not have the budget for this last match. Nasser delegated negotiations to Yousef (Al-Obaidly, CEO of BeIN Sports France). (…) The season began a month later and the DNCG needed guarantees. Yousef, first very reluctant, said that he could not offer € 100 million. We finally agreed that Bein would offer € 75 million and that there would be potentially another sponsorship contract linked to Qatar ”said Petermann, who added that Nak was held away, in a separate room, London negotiations between Yousef al-Obaidly and the L1 bosses and that the beIN Sports solution was not even his favorite. “Operationally, the league has negotiated, from start to finish, with Yousef. I think Nasser would have preferred that Amazon would come and make a better offer. »»

Once this London meeting is completed, this group of presidents and Vincent Labrune therefore presented the action plan to the other L1 bosses. And according to Petermann, if the tone quickly rose, it is simply because most of the presidents were not aware of the behind the scenes of the negotiations. “”On July 14, not everyone had the same level of information. We presented to the presidents a final result that they did not like, two options not so interesting, with bad financial implications for them. And as in all cases where the money to be shared decreases, people get bored. But when you have all the info, you understand Nasser's annoyance. Being attacked just because people don't know what you have done to try to help, it can raise emotions.Will this new lighting help calm the game?