TV rights, record transfers… What you need to know before the resumption of the French football championship this weekend

A new sponsor, new broadcasters, two big-spending Olympiques… A quick look at what’s new in Ligue 1 for this 2024-2025 season.

Ligue 1 resumes its rights this weekend. After a little over two months of break, it’s the return of vacation for the players of the French championship this Friday, August 16, with the kick-off given during the meeting between Le Havre and Paris-Saint-Germain.

A first day that will conclude with the clash between Stade Rennais and Olympique Lyonnais at 8:45 p.m. on Sunday. Before embarking on this new season, here is a quick update on what you need to know about this new edition of Ligue 1 “McDonald’s”.

A new broadcaster in dance

After lengthy negotiations, Ligue 1 has found broadcasters on the wire, one month before the restart. The French clubs have placed their trust in the offer proposed by DAZN, a British platform entirely dedicated to sport launched in 2020, and beIN Sports, a Qatari encrypted channel that has already broadcast many foreign championships since 2012. The latter inherits the main poster of each Ligue 1 matchday, while DAZN will broadcast the other eight matches of the weekend.

An alliance between two platforms that raises the bill to 50 euros per month to be able to watch the entirety of Ligue 1. A higher sum than last season, but less beneficial for the clubs, since the TV rights were sold for “only” 500 million euros, far from the billion hoped for by the Professional Football League.

Seven French clubs in the European Cup

If Paris Saint-Germain qualified for the Champions League as usual by winning the championship, the capital club will this time be accompanied by AS Monaco and the surprising Stade Brestois, and perhaps even LOSC, still in the running after its victory on Tuesday evening in the third preliminary round of the competition against Fenerbahçe. The three (or four) French clubs will discover the new format of the competition, with its single matches and its single group of 36 teams. A new system also implemented in the Europa League, where France will be represented by OGC Nice and Olympique Lyonnais. In the Europa Conference League, Lens will try to validate its qualification from August 22 in the play-offs (return on August 29).

Three historic clubs return

No new club will discover the French elite during this 2024-2025 season, but three historic clubs of the championship are making their return: Auxerre, champion of Ligue 2, Angers (second in Ligue 2) and Saint-Etienne, winner of its two-legged play-off against Metz at the end of last season. Angers and AJA are doing the “elevator” by going back up to Ligue 1 only one year after being relegated.

New faces in the elite

While the transfer market took a while to settle down in a league awaiting the outcome of the television rights issue, some clubs proved particularly active. Accustomed to major changes every summer, Olympique de Marseille has once again shaken up its squad, appointing Italian coach Roberto de Zerbi as its head. After Lilian Brassier, the Marseille club welcomed Ismaël Koné, Mason Greenwood and Pierre-Emile Hojberg, all from the Premier League.

Another Olympique team that really blew up during the transfer window was Olympique Lyonnais. The Rhone club massively exercised the purchase options of its players who arrived on loan last winter: Saïd Benrahma, Mama Baldé, Orel Mangala, Ernest Nuamah, Duje Caleta-Car. To which are added the transfers of Moussa Niakhaté, Abner Vinicius and Georges Mikautadze. That is, in total, more than 134 million euros spent. PSG, for its part, was more discreet, with its only recruit being Russian goalkeeper Matvey Safonov.