If Kylian Mbappé does leave Paris Saint-Germain this year, it won’t only affect the capital club. Ligue 1 will feel the impact of the 25-year-old’s potential exit, as it will hurt their television deal.
Ligue 1 suffered with the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. However, Mbappé’s departure could be the final nail in the coffin for the league, as Le Parisien reports how much money they could lose if PSG loses their star player.
According to the outlet, French football targeted a billion-euro project regarding television rights, but Mbappé possibly leaving would compromise those plans.
“It would be a hard blow for Mbappé to leave,” Vincent Chaudel, co-founder of the Sports Business Observatory, told Le Parisien (h/t Le10Sport). “But in any case, if he had re-signed for a year, it wouldn’t have had a crucial impact. We are talking here about broadcast contracts over five seasons.
“The main problem is that his departure would be added to that of Messi and Neymar last summer, and behind them, the leading clubs are struggling. Monaco is on sale, Marseille is in a tough spot, Lyon is on the edge of the abyss, and Bordeaux and Saint-Étienne are in Ligue 2.
“In this context, convincing a broadcaster of the competitiveness at the top of the championship becomes complicated. For me, this ultra-domination of PSG is more problematic than the future of Mbappé.”
French football doesn’t have the television contracts that the other top European leagues have. As a result, even a team such as RC Lens, which played in the UEFA Champions League this season, couldn’t keep a couple of players who nearly beat PSG for the league title.
The Lens team in the Champions League was different as they lost Cheick Doucoure and Seko Fofana this past summer. A better television deal perhaps allows teams like Lens to hold onto their players to play Champions League football rather than taking the cash.
Nonetheless, if Mbappé leaves, it returns to the drawing board.
If it is tipping French football into a dead zone then it sounds like a serious FFP investigation is necessary to determine how the Qatari owners are getting away with it (a quick look at the President’s wiki page reveals a lot… lots of conflict of interest and corruption charges – he is even on the UEFA executive committee !). If they are offering MBappe 109 million (!!!) as rumoured when Real Madrid are offering 25M then there is the clue. A normal salary structure is critical to allow competitiveness. Maybe this needs a call from the French President. 🙂