The dispute between French Ligue 1 and the streaming service escalated: the clubs want the separation, but their financial crisis could further tighten.
In a meeting on Tuesday, the Presidents of the 18 clubs of the Ligue 1 decided to end the cooperation with DAZN at the end of the season, according to the sports daily “L’équipe”, at the end of the season. The board of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), which is comparable to the DFL in Germany, also agreed. The LFP would then be looking for a TV partner again – and may be faced with further significant financial problems.
Previously, arbitration had failed in the dispute. Fest “the failure of the mediation initiated at the beginning of March 2025,” said the subsidiary “LFP Media”. According to “The Athletic”, DAZN announced: “Unfortunately, the mediation did not succeed in bridging the gap between the parties. Therefore it was not possible to reach an amicable solution to the situation.” In her statement, “LFP Media” emphasized: “The contract between the parties remains in force and we expect our partner to fully fulfill all of its obligations.”
The office of the French league association LFP in Paris
Dispute over illegal streaming and cooperation
In February, DAZN had publicly announced that he had retained half of the due rate of 70 million euros for the time being. “If you buy a pot, you don’t expect a sieve,” says the managing director Brice Daumin of “Dazn” France of the newspaper “Le Figaro”. What he meant by this: From the point of view of DAZN, the league does too little against illegal streaming. There was also a dispute over the participation of the clubs when designing reporting.
Brice Daumin, Managing Director of DAZN France
The conflict went so far that both sides met in court. DAZN demanded 573 million euros in compensation and spoke of a “product fraud” and an “observed failure” of the league, which would have led to a disappointing number of subscriptions. The LFP again called for the payment of the outstanding money.
For the league and the clubs, there is a really existential question: Who will show the games in the future and where does the money come from?
LFP gets from one crisis to the next
The next crisis is pending for France’s professional football. Such situations have existed in recent years:
- December 2020: The league’s TV contract with the “MediaPro” service burst spectacularly after the outbreak of the 2020 pandemic, the provider was insolvent. “Amazon Prime” took over for less money, the income from media rights almost fell by a quarter. The league, who was the only big league had to cancel the season because of the pandemic, crashed in parallel with the long -time partner “Canal Plus”.
- April 2022: In its financial difficulty, the LFP pledged 13 percent of its TV revenue to the private equity investor CVC for 1.5 billion euros. The catch: The contract does not work, the obligation applies at least to the planned lifespan of a subsidiary founded for the distribution of TV rights of 99 years. The money was distributed very unevenly: 200 million euros went to Paris Saint-Germain, relegation to Ligue 2 received 16.5 million.
- July 2024: The investor deal should all make it richer: the league, the clubs and the investor. For the new TV contract, the league with CVC was targeting one billion euros annually. Ligue 1 should at least bring this closer to the level of the Bundesliga or Series A. The reality: The new contract brought only 500 million euros – 400 of “DAZN”, 100 of “leg sports”. And 13 percent of this sum also belongs to the investor.
- October 2024: The French Senate certified the LFP “mismanagement”. One point of criticism: LFP boss Vincent Labrune suffered a bonus for the conclusion of the investor deal. “This is unprecedented,” wrote the Senate. “The LFP managers objectively had a personal interest in this decision.” Labrune’s salary was almost tripled after 420,000 euros to 1.2 million euros, and later reduced to 840,000 euros. Labrune denied the allegations and was re-elected by the clubs as LFP boss.
- April 2025: Now the agreement with DAZN stands before the end.
Title fight boring, stars leave the league
The search for a new partner is difficult for the LFP. Because the development of the league makes them less and less interesting for broadcasters.
Paris Saint-Germain won eleven of the 13 most recent championships. PSG was determined as a master at the beginning of April. There is no serious competition for the top club of the league.
Old times: Mbappe, Messi and Neymar in the Ligue 1
At the same time, however, the last very big stars left the league: Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) and Neymar (Al-Hilal) in 2023, Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid) 2024. The LFP recently created the brand core “League of Talent”.
The result is a boring title fight without a big name that is unattractive for possible TV partners.