US$44m deal saves French League Cup from extinction

29 June 2009 | Posted in Broadcast, Soccer, Top Story | By Adam Fraser

The French League Cup has been saved from disaster after France Télévisions committed to the tournament for the next three years.

French football league president Frédéric Thiriez had warned that the Coupe de la Ligue faced extinction if, as several top-flight clubs have demanded, the Uefa Europa League qualification awarded to the winner was stripped from the competition and instead handed to the team that finishes fifth in the league. At that announcement, France Télévisions declared that it would no longer have any interest in the competition without the European qualifying place.

Now the broadcaster has signed a three-year extension to its deal, although the league is taking something of a hit - the new contract for live broadcasts is worth US$14 million per year rather than the US$16 million paid under the previous arrangement - and the clubs have been forced to accept that the European qualifying place will stay with the competition.

Thiriez announced his satisfaction with the deal, praising, "The irreplaceable exposure it gives to the clubs on a free television channel."

France Télévisions will pay an extra US$600,000 per season for a highlights package for the competition, taking the total value of the deal to nearly US$44 million over the three years.