Senior figures at top-flight French soccer clubs are involved in a dispute with BeIN Sports after claiming the pay-TV broadcaster requested to have a Visit Qatar logo placed on the shirts of Ligue 1 teams during live matches next season as part of its domestic rights negotiations with the league.
Multiple sources claim the request was made on behalf of the Qatari-owned company by its chairman, Nasser al-Khelaifi, who is also the president of Fremch champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), during a meeting between the presidents of several Ligue 1 clubs this week.
However, the UK's Guardian publication has reported that a source close to the discussions at BeIN and PSG strenuously denied any such request was made.
Earlier this month, French soccer’s LFP body finally ended its protracted search for domestic broadcasters after reaching an agreement with global streaming service DAZN and BeIN.
DAZN has claimed the main package of rights to show the bulk of live Ligue 1 matches until 2029, with BeIN paying €100 million a season for one top match per week.
The deal with DAZN is understood to have been ratified by the LFP’s board on Thursday (July 25) but negotiations with BeIN are ongoing with the international broadcaster believed to be discussing a specific sponsorship element as part of the contract.
According to the Guardian, sources have described the nature of BeIN’s offer as “extremely complex.”
BeIN’s original agreement with the LFP reportedly included only €50 million a year in TV rights, with the rest made up in sponsorship deals.
French newspaper L’Équipe reports that the LFP has negotiated the sponsorship element down to 20% in recent days.
Senior club figures said a request for players to wear Visit Qatar badges had caused tension.
The Guardian quoted one owner as saying: “What if I want to bring in Saudi money as an investor?
“They’re trying to build a captive league. It’s my understanding after the call among the presidents that there are a lot of new terms that are being put on the table.”
The source at PSG and BeIN Sports described the claims as “an outrageous campaign from those clubs who want to launch an LFP channel direct, rather than have traditional broadcasters.”
The decision to accept the DAZN and BeIN offers was initially heavily criticised by Olympique Lyonnais' American owner John Textor who preferred to house games on a dedicated streaming service.
Textor also had strong words on social media where he commented on the link between BeIN and perennial Ligue 1 winners PSG, owned by Qatar Sports Investments.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Textor said: “Congratulations to BeIN Sports! The PSG Network has once again secured the right to run PSG promotions over OL games.”
DAZN will pay €400 million per season for eight out of the nine games in each round under a deal running through the 2028-29 season.
However, the LFP is understood to have included an exit clause after two or three seasons.
This was the LFP’s first broadcast rights sales process since agreeing to a commercial partnership with private equity group CVC Capital Partners last year.
For the previous Ligue 1 cycle, global tech and retail giant Amazon paid €250 million per year to show eight matches per week, through its Prime video streaming service, while pay-TV heavyweight Canal Plus paid €332 million annually for two matches.
In May, the LFP appointed the Infront agency to exclusively manage the international media rights for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 in several global markets across Europe, Asia, and Oceania for this cycle.
The body is expecting to receive around €160 million for international rights.
Meanwhile, BeIN Sports has revealed it set a new viewership record for its coverage of the 2024 UEFA European Championship national teams tournament in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The pay-TV operator generated cumulative viewership of more than 1.2 billion views of its coverage of the month-long tournament held in Germany.
This marks a 27% rise from the broadcaster’s coverage of Euro 2020 which generated 960 million views across the same numbers of matches (51).
The final, in which Spain beat England 2-1, saw more than 95.2 million viewers tune in, making it the most-watched game of the tournament. This was up almost 50% from the Euro 2020 final between Italy and England which attracted 64.4 million viewers.
The two Euro 2024 semi-finals also drew in huge audiences, with more than 54.1 million fans tuning in to watch Spain’s 2-1 win over France, before 54.4 million watched England’s victory over the Netherlands by the same scoreline.
Across the whole tournament, which was played between June 14 and July 14, 23.8 million viewers watched each match on average, which was over 5 million more viewers per match versus the average for Euro 2020.
BeIN also generated record numbers across its digital and social media platforms. Total cumulative impressions across the broadcaster’s social media channels rose to 2.6 billion, reflecting a 261.8% increase compared to 718 million in 2020.
Meanwhile, cumulative video views across its platforms saw a 518% increase from 178 million in 2020 to 1.1 billion views recorded during this year’s tournament.
