ESPN UK to show Ligue 1 this season

It was revealed last night from sources close to French Football Weekly that ESPN UK will be showing Ligue 1 matches on their TV channel for the upcoming season. The news comes on the back of the new Premier League deal announced last night that saw ESPN lose the rights to show Premier League football from the 2013 season.

The overseas rights for Ligue 1 are owned by Al-Jazerra and many questions had been asked regarding would they show the games in the United Kingdom – it now seems that ESPN will be the lead channel in this country. This has not been confirmed by the channel themselves but this information has now come to us from two different sources in the last two weeks.

The information was described as “common knowledge“ to those who work for ESPN in the UK.

It is not clear how many games, or to what level they will show the league but for the upcoming season they have a number of different options. The kick-off times have changed with Al-Jazerra showing games in France on three different days. There will be a Friday night kick off, five games around 5pm on the Saturday, a Saturday night game and three separate games on the Sunday. With six possible oppurtunites to show a live fixture this should be fairly easy for ESPN to accommodate on their existing schedule.

We will continue to bring more information on this development, and will keep you all updated here on the French Football Weekly website.