glory and setbacks of the sports service of Canal +

By Laurent Telo and Eric Collier

Posted today at 00:19

Charles Biétry, nicknamed “the Menhir”, returned to land in Brittany, and has no reservations about his Canal + sports service, from 1984 to 1998, when he created and directed it. He is inexhaustible on those happy and euphoric days, on the greatness and the influence of an editorial staff which was then “The place to be”, on his “Most beautiful professional adventure”.

At 77, he is quite talkative about his frenzied rigor and, even, he sees no problem in explaining his quarrels with the late Thierry Gilardi or with his friend of thirty years, Michel Denisot. But talk about Pierre Ménès, recently accused of repeated sexist behavior and suspended from the air, or of the crises that shake the current sports editorial staff of the encrypted channel, especially not: “I don’t know how to talk about it… And then, today, I don’t have any more enemies, I don’t want any, I stay quiet. “

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also Pierre Ménès, the fall of a football big mouth

From his office as PMU boss, Cyril Linette (promotion Canal 1996), wants to rewind his memories of the former “fourth channel”. It was he who recruited Pierre Ménès, in 2009, when he was in turn piloting sports. But, rather than giving his opinion on current affairs, especially not, he prefers to recall his hesitations at the time: “I thought about it a lot before bringing in Pierre Ménès. He was very funny on M6 in “100% football”, but he was also poles apart from Canal culture. “

He hires her ” against all odds “, against the advice of the star presenter, Hervé Mathoux, “Really not a fan of this idea”. And the audience of the “Canal Football Club” (“CFC”), the big Sunday show of Canal +, reached new heights, “Two million viewers, like“ Le Grand Journal ”! “, recalls Linette.

Read also Hervé Mathoux, the playing master of the “Canal Football Club”

Nathalie Iannetta (class of 1995) smokes a fine cigarette on a sunny terrace. She was the great lady of Canal sports in the 2000s; today, she works on TF1, the house opposite: “What is going on, I can’t say it doesn’t matter to me, but it’s a different story, it’s not mine anymore. “ Like her former colleagues, she handles the unsaid which says a lot: “All I can say is that I feel like what is missing today is fun. And you can feel it on the air. “

Major crisis

This Sunday April 4, 2021 in the early evening, the “CFC” begins almost on time, as if nothing had happened. Even so, a very knowledgeable observer of the daily life of the channel’s sports department notices that Hervé Mathoux, the show’s master of ceremonies, seems much more relaxed than usual. Because, if there are six people live, five men and a woman on the set, it is a great absentee, always uncontrollable, who is noticed the most.

You have 87.96% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.