Clear slump in numbers
Even less money for clubs: Ligue 1 experiences TV debacle
21.08.2025 – 12:19 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
While the bottom of the table of the English Premier League gets the equivalent of more than 100 million euros, the world in France is completely different. The clubs face a problem.
The financial need for French football clubs is growing. Because the paid TV funds continue to shrink. As reported, among other things, the French sports newspaper “L’équipe”, a total of only 80.5 million euros will be distributed to the 18 teams.
The individual clubs collect between 1.44 million and 4.67 million euros. Last year there were more than three times as much money and the income was already too low compared to the spending of the clubs. Montpellier received 5.18 million euros, i.e. more money than, for example, title favorite Paris Saint-Germain will get this year.
There are several developments behind the drastic decline in TV funds that have indicated for years, but are now noticeable. In 2020, the Spanish provider MediaPro was no longer able to pay the 800 million euros planned for TV rights due to the Corona crisis. The contract was terminated early, a hearty setback for the clubs, which also meant that the clubs had to sell their best players to save themselves financially. This in turn damaged the attractiveness of the league.
The league also completed a deal with the US investment fund CVC to bridge the loss through the Corona crisis. The deal brought in 1.5 billion euros, but also led to 13 percent of the future media revenues should go to CVC. Now the clubs have to hand in part of their TV revenue annually, which also limits the scope.
The next deep blow followed in October 2023. At the auction for the rights for the period 2024 to 2029, not a single broadcaster made an offer. Neither Canal+ nor Bein Sports or Amazon Prime did not want to pay the 800 million euros a year. The league then had to rely on self-marketing, which in turn increased the production and sales costs.
All of this and other aspects mean that the clubs only receive a total of 80.5 million euros. Compared to the English Premier League, a negligible amount. In England, for example, Southampton received around 109 million pounds last season, which is the equivalent of around 126 million euros. As a relegation, Southampton alone received almost 45 million euros more than all 18 French teams together in the coming season.