The impact of Messi on Ligue 1 and France

Let's try to take the politics, outrage (for whatever reason), and racial overtones out of our thoughts for a second.

Do you realize that Messi in France is going to kick start a financially struggling league and inspire an entire generation of people, young and old, to follow football in France even more?

France is not a football-crazy country.  it's very popular; but it's not like the UK, Italy, and Spain where people live and breathe the game.  A few places like Marseille are like that... but it's not the norm.  Now, you have a truly legendary player coming that will bring out everyone.  Wherever he goes, it will be an event.  The stadiums will be full.

It's an honor and an opportunity for France imo.  In fact, that's how most people see it.  All the other club managers, owners, and players are just beside themselves with joy that Messi is joining the league.  Even French people, who don't like celebrities and rich people frankly...  are extremely happy to have a figure like Messi come to their country.

Neymar's arrival was a bit like this... but he acted like such a brat and diva that people just didn't like him eventually.  Messi is on a whole different level and he's much more humble (which works far better in France).

I think it's great for football generally.

It also allows people to get some joy from like in these COVID19 times, which continue to be very difficult.

There is no impact on the league or the teams itself, the fact is no one will sit down to watch Caen vs Baguette United on a Saturday night. Ligue 1 is hanging by a thread with its horrendous TV deal farce with BeIN.

Ligue 1 needs its sleeping giants in OM and OL to wake up and compete at a high level, Monaco to go back to its high level, Lille as well. Truth is, stripping and selling clubs for French players year on year won't help them in the long run. Ligue 1 has great, historical teams, as sad as it is, there's glass ceiling there. Especially with the amount of fodder teams in the league.

All Messi will do is attract more fans from Asia/East Asia/Americas to watch PSG games. As for the rest of the league, his influence is minimal, he won't bring in cash for them, he won't change their balance sheets. Ligue 1 is in dire need of shrewd management moreso than past-it La Liga stars.

Kaladin wrote:There is no impact on the league or the teams itself, the fact is no one will sit down to watch Caen vs Baguette United on a Saturday night. Ligue 1 is hanging by a thread with its horrendous TV deal farce with BeIN.

Ligue 1 needs its sleeping giants in OM and OL to wake up and compete at a high level, Monaco to go back to its high level, Lille as well. Truth is, stripping and selling clubs for French players year on year won't help them in the long run. Ligue 1 has great, historical teams, as sad as it is, there's glass ceiling there. Especially with the amount of fodder teams in the league.

All Messi will do is attract more fans from Asia/East Asia/Americas to watch PSG games. As for the rest of the league, his influence is minimal, he won't bring in cash for them, he won't change their balance sheets. Ligue 1 is in dire need of shrewd management moreso than past-it La Liga stars.

piss down messinomics is going to change the league

So basically, trickle down economics but with Messi (neatly coined by top lad Cas, Messinomics).

I agree with Kaladin. I think Messi will only drive more people to watch PSG games and help the club land more lucrative sponsorship deals. But as far as the other teams of Ligue I go, I don't think people will tune in more to watch them play.

I think this is good for PSG mainly. The other clubs? Not so much.

Also Kaladin, you killed me with "Baguette United"

I think from a commercial aspect signing Messi is obviously a big get. His presence generates revenue from prize earnings and sponsorship perspectives. PSG will benefit from it greatly as it improves their brand as they have pretty much created a modern galacticos team.

I do agree that signing Messi will bring more footballing enthusiasm to the country. I'm sure scalpers will make big money selling both home and away PSG matches since Messi is an attraction. The people there will want to see him live. However, with COVID can you even guarantee a regular footballing audience with all these new variants coming up? Does the local live audience argument even hold the weight that it did 30-40 years ago? Everyone can watch him on their TV and tickets are much more expensive nowadays. Unless you are referring to the tourist attraction part of it which is something Barca benefitted a lot from due to Messi. Half of Camp Nou's audience was filled with tourists.

Messi plays in the social media era so he has millions of foreign fans who watch his every game. PSG will obviously get more eyes on them, but I just don't see those eyes sticking around for the other teams. Messi is an attraction and the theory that signing him brings new eyes to the league is correct. But I just see those eyes sticking around to watch PSG. In reality, for it to have the effect you want, people would come for PSG, but then they would be incentivized to stick around because they enjoy watching the rest of the teams.

I just don't see that happening. Sure Ligue 1 has some historical big names, but in 2021 do any of them have any marketable players? I said it before, but I wouldn't be able to name more than two players from Lille's starting 11. Who even plays for Lyon, Monaco, and Marseille nowadays?

In reality, Messi will stick around for like 2 years. The biggest impact he can have on Ligue 1 is if his presence helps them sign a superior TV contract. When is their TV deal expiring? Even if it does get renewed won't it just lead to a La Liga situation where PSG is distributed a lot more compared to the rest of the French teams?

Is the argument that signing Messi will promote other Ligue 1 owners to be more competitive? Is that even possible with the way COVID has wrecked every team's financial situation?

I don't know, I just don't see it. I think it will have an impact on PSG mainly, but a minor impact on the rest of the teams. Though if there's something I've missed please let me know Sports. I'm genuinely curious.

Trickle down economics = piss down Messinomics in 10/10

Sports, who even shows ligue 1 in the US?

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Sports, who even shows ligue 1 in the US?

you'd have to subscribe to Bein. Only European leagues we have access to is epl and serie a ( I think it was only through ESPN+) and Bundesliga. Now we have la Liga with espn but didnt have access to them before

It has already begun, I downloaded the first PSG game. Also looked up how much is the monthly broadcast fees. Viasat shows it in Finland, probably will take one for the season.

No broadcasting partners for Ligue Un yet in India, Amazon prime did announce a 250M deal in Europe though. Considering the horrible weekend timing for Ligue Un games as well (PSG almost always plays at 9pm CET), I don't see Spanish Asian plastics watching it religiously either.

Do you think anyone would have given a flying fuck about Serie A if Platini, Maradonna and Van Basten didn't join the league?  Same with La Liga... it was dying well and good until superstars started coming again.

Stars carry leagues.  The big teams are the ones that can afford the stars.  Big league-wide commercial and media deals are signed because of big teams and big stars.  Fans are drawn into the game because of star power and national/city pride that comes with being competitive in the biggest tournaments.  Wealth and investors become interested because it affords them prestige to join a league with superstars... so they can participate in that prestige.  That's how other teams begin to rise.

It's like that in every sport, everywhere.

This isn't some new or untried formula. It's THE formula.

Neymar going to PSG was bigger honestly because he is in the prime of his career and made a bold move to leave barcelona for a lesser league.

Messi moving to PSG is just because they are the only team that can pay him what he wants and it's more of a retirement move. He is 34 and well on a decline.

Serie A in its heyday had multiple world class footballers scattered about different teams. La Liga as well but to a lesser extent (Super Depor, Celta Vigo, Valencia & La Real were not to be fucked with at all) and of course nowadays, the PL.

However, all the legit stars in Ligue 1 belong to PSG. That's it. If the selling point of the league is watch the stars and PSG has all of them, the league administrators are gonna have to pitch a huge sell to make sure the rest of the league benefits from one team's accumulation of wealth.

I wish them the best of luck on that one.

The first Serie A galactico team was Juve when they brought in Platini and Boniek + signed every Italy NT players.  Then Milan and others began to buy players too because they had to compete with Juve.

Same with La Liga.  They got investors to own teams that wanted to compete with Madrid mostly.

In France, Lille has some good players with Renato Sanches, Yilmaz, Ikone, etc.  OM just signed a lot of better players with Ghendouzi, Milik, Balerdi, Gerson and some kids like de la Fuente.

Lyon is in a weird place frankly.  I'm not sure what they're doing.  I like Bosz as a manager though.

I like what Nice is doing and Rennes will be much better this year imo.

Which bring me to the managers.  Ligue 1 just added Kovac, Sampaoli, Bosz, Poche, Petkovic and Oscar Garcia.  For the first time since forever, they're bringing in managers with new ideas from other places.  The biggest issue for me was the closed league environment.

I'm not saying it's going to change overnight... it won't.  It's France.  We complain; but we rarely change lol.  But I like the direction.  The key key KEY is the next media deal.  With Messi in Ligue 1, I'm confident that the deal will be better than decent, which will help everyone.

Remember that Lille is the defending Ligue 1 champion... not PSG.

sportsczy wrote:Do you think anyone would have given a flying fuck about Serie A if Platini, Maradonna and Van Basten didn't join the league?  Same with La Liga... it was dying well and good until superstars started coming again.

Stars carry leagues.  The big teams are the ones that can afford the stars.  Big league-wide commercial and media deals are signed because of big teams and big stars.  Fans are drawn into the game because of star power and national/city pride that comes with being competitive in the biggest tournaments.  Wealth and investors become interested because it affords them prestige to join a league with superstars... so they can participate in that prestige.  That's how other teams begin to rise.

It's like that in every sport, everywhere.

This isn't some new or untried formula.  It's THE formula.

sportsczy wrote:The first Serie A galactico team was Juve when they brought in Platini and Boniek + signed every Italy NT players.  Then Milan and others began to buy players too because they had to compete with Juve.

Same with La Liga.  They got investors to own teams that wanted to compete with Madrid mostly.

In France, Lille has some good players with Renato Sanches, Yilmaz, Ikone, etc.  OM just signed a lot of better players with Ghendouzi, Milik, Balerdi, Gerson and some kids like de la Fuente.

Lyon is in a weird place frankly.  I'm not sure what they're doing.  I like Bosz as a manager though.

I like what Nice is doing and Rennes will be much better this year imo.

Which bring me to the managers.  Ligue 1 just added Kovac, Sampaoli, Bosz, Poche, Petkovic and Oscar Garcia.  For the first time since forever, they're bringing in managers with new ideas from other places.  The biggest issue for me was the closed league environment.

I'm not saying it's going to change overnight... it won't.  It's France.  We complain; but we rarely change lol.  But I like the direction.  The key key KEY is the next media deal.  With Messi in Ligue 1, I'm confident that the deal will be better than decent, which will help everyone.

Platini went to Juventus. Van Basten went to Milan. Maradona went to Napoli. If Salah, Ronaldo and Lewandowski went to Lille, Lyon and Marseille then the situation would be comparable to Serie A. Messi, Ramos and Neymar going to PSG is just going to make PSG more popular and make them more money. For now, no one is going to go start watching any other French teams to watch freakin Guendouzi, Milik and Yilmaz or the tactical genius of Niko Kovac.

The argument that this will force other teams to invest to compete with PSG does not hold weight. There is no team that are financially capable of matching PSG. Its a mismatch. The top 11 highest paid players in Ligue 1 are all PSG players. The only way the league can be competitive is if someone as rich as PSG owners buy other clubs that can financially compete with PSG and attract stars to their team. When there are multiple teams with star players that would benefit the league and increase its viewership and popularity. So the future of the league is dependant on whims of random billionaires rather than PSG breaking transfer records having a salary bill higher than the rest of the league combined.

A better media deal can certainly help but only to a certain extent. PSG don't need lucrative media deals to spend exorbitant amounts and just TV money won't be enough for teams to attract players that are on the same level as PSG players. I remember La Liga TV deals had the lion's share go Real/Barca and I can see the same thing happen here.

This trickle down economics argument was the same shit that Perez was spewing to justify the Super League which you were vehemently against. You pretty much said you'd stop supporting Madrid and called Perez football's Trump. Interesting you are using the same argument as him here.

PSG is gonna win multiple league titles in a row with the odd Monaco and Lille in between a few times. In a one team league people will only watch the one team.

My point is that it did trickle down in Serie A. Juve set the pace and then the other teams followed, especially Milan. It didn't happen at once. Juve started it.

Not saying it will happen in Ligue 1... but until a club sets the pace, it has no chance of starting. PSG has set the pace. Now it's up to the rest of Ligue 1 to follow, or not. It will all come down to the media deal next year. That's the majority of the revenue for clubs.

sportsczy wrote:My point is that it did trickle down in Serie A.  Juve set the pace and then the other teams followed, especially Milan.  It didn't happen at once.  Juve started it.

Not saying it will happen in Ligue 1... but until a club sets the pace, it has no chance of starting.  PSG has set the pace.  Now it's up to the rest of Ligue 1 to follow, or not.  It will all come down to the media deal next year.  That's the majority of the revenue for clubs.

Berlusconi buying Milan is what made them capable of buying Van Basten, Rijkaard, Gullit. Nothing is going to happen unless billionaires buy teams and they ably circumvent FFP like PSG does to buy top players. For now, nothing is being trickled down by PSG.

Also Serie A is really not a good example to follow because teams went bankrupt from irresponsibly spending, which damaged the league beyond repair in the long term.

And that's my point M99. Billionaires/Investors care about two things: Prestige and money. PSG is bringing some prestige to Ligue 1 now. Can the league use this to attract new money? I hope so. At least there's a chance now.

Before that happens, the league needs a proper media deal, which it doesn't have right now. That's the next step.

Several issues with Monaco:
- lost their tax free status in term of football wages since half the games are played on French soil
- owner got divorced in Switzerland and literally lost 50% of his net worth
- FFP brought down the hammer since, at best, Monaco gets 9k fans per game at home

Not the right club with FFP in play. OM has a very shitty billionaire as an owner. Rennes has a very very wealthy owner. Lyon is Aulas. Lille just got bought by an investment fund. Gerard Lopez just bought Bordeaux.

Issue is media deal. Owner of the rights went BK and defaulted. So everything is in litigation and on a 1 year deal. That will get sorted next season with Messi here.

Ligue 1 is shown and extremely popular in Africa.  In fact, I’d wager it’s the most followed league and PSG is on top. A lot of African players in Ligue 1.  That’s not the issue there.  All the games are pirated.   So the media rights aren’t worth much.

South America and Asia are the big targets.

Did interest in MLS shoot up just because washed up Beckham, Henry, Kaka, Pirlo, Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Lampard, Gerrard, Schweinsteiger went there before their retirement?

No. Not a bit.

This is the same case. Messi is 34.

Sports getting all giddy and ahead of himself again, brilliant to see as always. It's been a while

Messi is the current Ballon d'Or holder, and in his prime. Just had one of the best major NT-tournament performances, ever. What has that got to do with Kaka's of the world?