Ligue 2 resumes on Friday evening, in a tense context in the stands. Voices are being raised among supporters’ associations against the choice of the broadcaster, beIN Sports, to schedule seven of the nine matches on Friday.
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In Grenoble, Gerby is a supporter of the city’s club, GF38. He is the voice of this protest movement among fans of Ligue 2 teams, who are contesting beIN Sports’ scheduling of seven of the nine matches on Fridays. “The idea is to make ourselves heard and say: ‘We want football on the weekend’. Football is popular, it’s made for people and by people, it has to be accessible. When there are as few people working as possible, people have time to go to the stadium, to liven up the stands,” he judges.
The majority of club presidents in the championship are in solidarity with this discontent from their supporters. “Indeed, they are very penalized. At home, it can still be understood, but away, it is complicatedexplains Laurent Lairy, president of Stade Lavallois. We also understand that the broadcaster who bought the rights has constraints. But for us now, Ligue 2 clubs, it is a question of trying to negotiate during the season to try to return to a Saturday format.”
The situation is a consequence of the late award of Ligue 2 rights to beIN Sports for 40 million euros, while the first call for tenders did not include any matches on Friday or Monday. For many supporters, the clubs are trapped.
“We need to think more globally about this method of financing football, even if we know that TV rights will remain the main source of funding for our clubs.”
Arnaud Toudic, iconic supporter of EA Guingampto franceinfo
For its part, beIN Sports says it wants to avoid traffic jams with other weekend competitions by scheduling the majority of matches on Friday evening at 8 p.m. The Qatari channel defends itself against criticism by saying it supports Ligue 2 through its investment. The supporters, not convinced, have announced a “dead stadium” operation.