TV deal causes arguments in France

It will be interesting to see how gates are affected. It's not as if Ligue 2 games attract huge numbers anyway so this time change could well be drastic. It will certainly affect the almost non-existent away followings at this level.

Surely not, if away support is already 'almost non-existent'.

If Ligue 1 is played mostly on Saturdays, why doesn't Ligue 2 play on Sundays? Even with 8 p.m. kick offs, Friday night always seemed a strange slot. I suppose the answer is the usual. TV schedules.

Do Lens really have only 300 season ticket holders? I thought that they were one of the most fanatically supported teams in France.

Believe that refers to the fan club, not RC Lens as a whole.

geobra wrote:


Like England, seven Ligue 1 games are generally played on a Saturday, three are then moved to the Sunday, so yes, Friday is the best option for TV coverage.

Lens averaged almost 22,000 a match last season, and they may well suffer the most from the change, given the large geographical area from which they draw. A similar dynamic exists with at least two of last year's top five, Nantes and Bastia, though Bastia are now in Ligue 1.

Figures available here.

There are some teams that take an away following e.g Metz, Bastia, Lens, Nantes, Monaco but with the distances required to travel the early kick times might even kill off that.

Sunday nights 8pm are out due to Canal+'s regular Sunday 9pm kick off which is more often than not the big game of the weekend.

Why are Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 never played in the afternoon? What would be wrong with Sunday afternoon for Ligue 2? Even in Italy, where TV also reigns supreme, most matches still have afternoon kick offs, and the majority of the fans that I know hate it when their team plays in the evening.

Football culture.

French matches have been played in the evening for decades, just as Italian matches always used to be played on Sunday afternoons. Afternoon broadcasts of Premier League, Serie A and Bundesliga matches also get an audience in France.

Odd that they only play at night.

645 doesn't seem too bad although 7 pm would be better. Most baseball games (hockey and basketball too) in the US begin at 7 or 7:05, except on Sundays where it's usually earlier to help the visitors get home a bit earlier and to accommodate fireworks/let-kids-run-the-bases. High school football usually begins at 7 or earlier.

BTW, where's the "PSG becoming a super-club" thread?

Stop whinging. You're just fans and nobody cares about you.

Lens so far have around 10,000 season ticket holders against 15,000 last season. Not sure how much this is related to their on-field performances but it's a significant difference. That was in today's L'Équipe.

They have afternoon games for Ligue 2 games during January and February toavoid bad weather conditions, it lasts about 8 games of the season and games kick off at 14h30 but even that caused a hooha when it was introduced.