© Peter Hills
It does not stop there for the Belgian professional clubs. In addition to increased costs and decreased income, they are now presented with the canceled 2019-2020 season bill due to Corona. No more than a quarter of the matches were played at that time, after which the then TV rights holders Proximus, Telenet and Voo went to the Belgian Center for Arbitration and Mediation.
This proved the right of the TV rights holders, forcing professional clubs to repay more than twenty million euros in TV money. A bitter pill that can drive some batons deep into the red.
At the last public meeting of the Pro League, it was decided that CEO Lauren Barriss would negotiate with TV distributors. Alternative solutions will also be considered. The argument: If the clubs go bankrupt, the football product will be damaged and this is not in the interest of TV channels. It remains to be seen whether the rights holders will listen to this argument.
In addition, there is also the danger of a difficult discussion about how the law is distributed between clubs. A club like Mouscron was still a 1A club in 2019-2020, but has now moved to the amateur series. Conversely, clubs like Oud-Heverlee Leuven, Union and Westerlo are now top-tier players, but they still played in 1B three years ago. (without)
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