TV rights: "I'm worried about the financial state of French football" (Joseph Oughourlian, RC Lens)

"I'm a president who's worried about the financial state of French football. At €500m, RC Lens will end up with around €9m. Never before have Ligue 1 clubs received so little from TV rights. Conversely, subscribing to the Ligue 1 package has rarely represented such a financial effort for fans. By way of comparison, paying for the TV package this season will cost more than the most expensive season ticket at Bollaert (€545). This pricing clearly paves the way for piracy," said Joseph Oughourlian, owner and president of RC Lens (Ligue 1 McDonald's) in a post on the LinkedIn platform on 15/07/2024.

Oughourlian was reacting, as John Textor, president of Olympique Lyonnais, had done the day before (see "further reading" section), to the unanimous approval by the LFP's board of directors on Sunday 15/07/2024 of the award of domestic broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 to the OTT sports platform DAZN and the pay-TV group beIN SPORTS France for the 2024-2029 cycle (five seasons), reported by the French sports daily L'Équipe. Under the terms of the deal, the two broadcasters will obtain the…