LFP/Mediapro: "65% of our turnover gone in a few months" (J-H Eyraud, O. de Marseille)

"We arrived in this pandemic with not a single euro of debt on our balance sheet, except the shareholder debt of Frank McCourt (American owner of the club), who converted it to more than €100m in capital. With Covid and now Mediapro, we have roughly 65% of our turnover gone in the space of a few months. Our trump card is Frank McCourt. He is the largest investor in the Marseille region, by far. He has invested more than €350m into OM in four years," stated Jacques-Henri Eyraud, president of the Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1 Uber Eats), in the French sports daily L'Equipe on 23/12/2020.

The remarks of the Marseille president come as the Nanterre (Greater Paris) commercial court has validated the settlement agreement between the LFP and Mediapro Sport France on 22/12/2020. With this deal, the League recovers full enjoyment of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 broadcast rights acquired by the Chinese-Spanish group in 2018, but it is highly unlikely that it will be able to recover the same amounts initially promised by Mediapro (€828.6m per season until 2024) from several potential new buyers.

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