Canal Football Club plummets to 102,000 viewers, one of its worst scores since 2008

Canal Football Club recorded one of the worst scores in its history during its latest broadcast, attracting only 102,000 free-to-air viewers, a 0.7% audience share. For a show created in 2008 and long considered an unmissable fixture in French football, the decline is vertiginous.

The return on 30 August was not lacking in ambition: a new studio set and Michel Platini as a prestigious guest. Result: 95,000 viewers on Canal+ and 28,000 on Canal+ Foot, already alarming figures. The latest episode performed even worse, confirming a trend that the pay-TV channel has failed to reverse despite maintaining the programme.

The contrast with the CFC’s golden age is striking. At its peak, the show regularly brought together between one and two million viewers. The decline began in the early 2020s, when Canal+ lost the exclusive rights to broadcast Ligue 1 — the editorial backbone of the programme since its inception.

The Pierre Ménès affair accelerated the rupture with the historical audience. Accused of sexual assault by journalist Marie Portolano, the former “sniper” of the show was initially suspended before definitively leaving Canal+ in July 2021. His presence since 2009 had largely contributed to the CFC’s distinctive identity; his departure left a void difficult to fill.

Deprived of the French championship in exclusivity, Canal Football Club refocused on European Cups and the Premier League. A repositioning that does not appear to have convinced viewers, with the symbolic 100,000 viewer mark now seemingly within reach — downwards.