Footballers across French football have been asking fans to tune into Ligue 1 despite PSG‘s dominance.
Nantes’ Francis Coquelin was the latest to make the point, encouraging supporters to sign up to the new Ligue1+ streaming platform.
“I think it’s an important issue, it’s a contribution to French football, to the French football economy,” he said upon the start of the season.
“I think it’s in difficulty, we have to encourage people to subscribe, it’s important.
“There’s an exciting Ligue 1, players who are coming back, like Giroud, Pogba, Thauvin… We have a Championship with a lot of quality young players.
“Encouraging people to subscribe, avoiding piracy, it’s important.
“We need a new offering, giving spectators more privacy in the changing rooms, I think that’s a good thing.
“It can only be beneficial. Football is constantly evolving, I think it’s an adaptation that needs to be made. It’s a new era, football has been a bit closed and it’s trying to open up.”
Despite Coquelin and many of his fellow pros asking fans to sign up, the opening day saw just 17 goals across all nine matches.
Even with Lille and Brest playing out a 3-3 draw, the figure of 17 goals was the lowest total on a Ligue 1 opening day in 10 years.
Despite that, Ligue1+ seems to have been a success, at least according to LFP Media president Nicolas de Tavernost.
“We already have more than 600,000 subscribers and we think that we will do in a single day of the Championship, the first day, what was done over the entire previous season,” he said.
“That’s a lot indeed. After that, it’s not the same subscription rate. So that’s more than 600,000 subscribers, with our own platform, but also Amazon, DAZN. Everyone considers that it’s an extraordinary start.”
He added: “The spirit that we wanted to give to Ligue 1+ was perfectly respected. Both the respect for the public, which was seen in the clothing, the sets… There was also the competence, the variety, the diversity of opinions and also the immersion.
“For this, we must thank the clubs for opening their doors to us and allowing us to do new things. This is only the beginning. The innovations will continue.
“I have set a target of 1 million subscribers by the end of the season. If we do more, we will be very happy.”
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