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Roures, in an interview with The New York Times shortly earlier than his viewers with lawmakers, doubled down on his perception that his plan would have labored had the pandemic not modified every little thing. For it to work, although, Mediapro’s new channel, Telefoot, would have wanted to draw three million subscribers, way over the reported 300,000 it had managed to lure by the point of its collapse.
Looking again at how issues unfolded, Roures says now, it was the French league that erred in not renegotiating with him. He contends that his new provide — about 580 million euros, or about $675 million — was double the quantity the league managed to extract from Amazon; that the federal government’s failure to sort out piracy additionally contributed to Mediapro’s hasty exit; and that Canal Plus, France’s prime pay-TV operator, tried to abuse its dominant place.
That stance could clarify why he was unable to barter his contract with the league within the fall of 2020. Roures, mentioned a crew proprietor who additionally sits on the French league’s board, “lost all credibility, and no one wanted to hear about him.”
A spokesman for the league didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Meanwhile, Roures, who rose to prominence on the flip of the century when he secured home rights to the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, lamented the worth he had paid. “There has been significant reputational damage for us,” he mentioned within the interview from Mediapro’s headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.
Asked if any a part of his foray into French soccer stored him up at evening, he mentioned no: “I sleep like a baby.”
While in his interview Roures tried to offer numerous explanations for what occurred, he declined to level fingers immediately at France’s golf equipment or its league. But he advised his new view from the sideline provided him a glimpse of the structural downside that he advised may depart the French league perpetually within the shadow of its rivals: Teams there, Roures mentioned, are far too reliant on participant buying and selling to steadiness their books.
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