Caught up by the TV rights crisis, Nîmes freezes its players’ bonuses

In Nîmes, Rani Assaf is almost as rare in the locker room as in the media. But the discreet president of the NO spoke in front of the group on Wednesday, before his team fell for the eighth time in nine Ligue 1 matches in front of Nice (0-2): in essence, he asked the players to wet more the jersey, to rediscover the values ​​of combat and solidarity that have made Nîmes famous. He also mentioned salaries, a hot issue.
Penultimate in the standings after fifteen days, the smallest budget in the Championship (40 M €) is also one of the clubs which depend the most on money from TV rights (70% of its income excluding transfers in 2018-2019 , against 9% for PSG). However, the insolvency of the main French football broadcaster, Mediapro, which did not meet its October deadline (€ 172.3 million) nor that of December (€ 152.5 million) before being forced to giving up his rights at the end of last week poses a real threat to the finances of the NO. According to our information, Assaf made a commitment in front of the players to pay them until March. But he would also have warned them that if the TV rights money did not fall by then, it would become difficult for the club to pay their salaries.

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