Struggle to find TV deal leaves French football clubs fearing bankruptcy

League president Vincent Labrune predicted broadcast revenues of €1bn a season but reality has proved different.

Lyon's Irish defender Jake O'Brien celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the French Cup Final. Pic: DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images.

"My watchword will be ‘unity’,” said Vincent Labrune when he was elected president of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) – the body that governs France’s top two divisions – in 2020.

But with little over a month until the new season, the former Marseille president finds himself in the line of fire, with several clubs in Ligue 1 facing the prospect of financial ruin owing to his failure to find a new bumper TV rights deal.