In “Rothen s’enflamme” on RMC this Tuesday, Jean-Michel Larqué lamented the announced disappearance of the iconic TV show Téléfoot on TF1, in which he participated for many years.
It was in the works, and now it’s confirmed. The TF1 channel announced on Tuesday the end of Téléfoot, the cult show dedicated to football and one of the oldest in French television, after the last episode airs on June 14. The channel’s sports management informed the teams that the program will be replaced by a multisport show starting in September.
While the Téléfoot brand will continue to exist on the TF1+ platform in a yet-to-be-determined form, this change marks the end of an era that began in 1977 on the first channel. And this decision deeply saddens Jean-Michel Larqué, former consultant and presenter of the program.
“Téléfoot, it’s part of my life. I am witnessing a slow agony, and witnessing a slow agony is never joyful, we are waiting for the last breath and it will come very soon,” reacted the former international player on Tuesday evening on Rothen s’enflamme on RMC. “I think I was the second guest of Pierre Cangioni on Téléfoot’s hour. I have been a player with AS Saint-Etienne and Paris Saint-Germain, I have been one of the presenters with Thierry Roland… And it wasn’t just Téléfoot, at that time TF1 had a lot of football, the European Cups… Who doesn’t remember the European Cup nights hosted by Roger Zabel, which were a real appointment?”
For Larqué, the direction of TF1 did nothing to save a program that has been losing momentum for years. And he believes they made a bad choice by nearly discontinuing it. “TF1 chose to turn its back on its best audiences,” he continued. “When I worked at TF1, the top twenty audiences of the year were twenty football matches. We turned our backs on that, we let go of the rights we had to buy rugby, which is more lucrative… We are no longer highlighting football. Maybe football doesn’t deserve it either, but I believe it’s a catastrophic editorial choice by the channel that regularly loses audience shares in general.”
The former glory of Saint-Etienne added: “We turned our backs on popular football. At the time, the documentaries by the late Didier Roustan were true masterpieces. When he portrayed Luis Fernandez dressed up as a tiger… He did absolutely amazing things. We were on all fronts. It’s a choice. Téléfoot is dying, long live Téléfoot.”
