The daily life of Argentine football is unique because it always manages to keep its most ardent fans alert. While the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) suffered a new crisis with the mission, on July 16, of its previously elected president Djahid Zefizef, it was Abdelkrim Medouar, president of the Professional Football League (LFP) since 2018, who highlighted the issue of broadcasting rights for the Ligue 1 (L1) professional championship.
Abdelkrim Medouar, who led ASO Chlef – unexpected champion of Algeria in 2011, was a deputy under the name of the National Liberation Front (FLN), is also known For his sensational outings to the media. The latest target was EPTV, which holds the broadcasting rights for the Ligue 1-Mobilis championship games.
“Public television has not paid anything to the LFP for four years”, denounced Abdelkrim Medouar during a forum organized on July 31 by the private channel Al-Hayat. The network's general management had promised to pay part of the debts, but the promise was not fulfilled. The clubs are impatiently awaiting their share. »
A delay of more than 5 million euros?
The contract between the LFP and public television will expire at the end of the 2023-2024 season. The total value of the delays mentioned by Medouar reached more than 5 million euros, to later be distributed among the L1 clubs. “That’s a lot of money. For financially comfortable clubs – like MC Alger, CR Belouizdad or USM Alger, whose main shareholders are state-owned companies like Sonatrach, Madar or Serport – this is certainly not negligible, but they don't need it as much as the others, who really suffer economically ”, explains the L1 training executive.
These derivatives arise from the sequence of divergent relationships between EPTV and LFP. Medouar, who did not respond he has our requests, had already addressed the matter in May 2022.
Lack of profitability
“EPTV is a state-owned company. It therefore receives money from public authorities, explains an Algerian specialist in media and broadcasting rights who asked anonymously. Consider, and I'm not the only one, that the money coming from broadcasting rights for L1 games is nothing more than a kind of grant aid given to clubs by the State. The latter, through the Public Treasury, pays a little more money to EPTV so that it can pay the rights to the clubs. But the problem is that, in fact, EPTV doesn't really need the broadcasting rights for a competition that isn't profitable. »
Being more specific, our interlocutor details his argument. “The L1 championship is not at a very high level, that’s no secret. Furthermore, many games are scheduled during the week, at inappropriate or inappropriate times, and several teams play in dilapidated stadiums, which are therefore not suitable for quality broadcasting. All these factors mean that Ligue 1, whose main sponsor is the operator Mobilis, is not very attractive to advertisers. In short, the broadcast of this championship brings nothing to EPTV…” The latter has not yet officially reacted to the accusations by Abdelkrim Medouar.
