LFP faces questions over Ligue 1 target after failure of auction

France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) is facing questions over its determination to secure a total of €1 billion a year for rights to Ligue 1 after this week being forced to abandon its auction on Wednesday.

The LFP said that after receiving several offers for the various lots being auctioned, it had decided not to award any rights and would continue pursue its path to commercialise the Ligue.

The announcement indicates that the auction for the rights to the 2024-29 seasons failed to produce bids that met the minimum fixed by the LFP for the two principal lots, of €530 million for the main lot with the three best matches per match-day, and €270 million for the second lot with six other matches each weekend.

Potential bidders for the rights include Amazon, beIN Sport, Eurosport (Warner Bros. Discovery) and DAZN. The former rights holder, Canal+, had already indicated it did not intend to participate, removing at a stroke the company most likely to make a return on investment in its bid.

The LFP is now likely to engage in one-to-one negotiations with potential buyers, perhaps including Canal+, which can look on the failure of the auction as a victory for its strategy of non-participation.

The auction however raises a major question mark over LFP president Vincent Labrune’s ambition to secure €1 billion for the totality of rights, including some €200 million for the international rights, and the value of Ligue 1 against that of its peers in England and Italy.