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Ligue 1 is the highest soccer league in France. Let's take a look at its history, how it works, the best teams, and why you should watch it. If you're looking to learn or improve your skills, try searching for a soccer trainer near me to find local coaches.
The History of Ligue 1
Soccer in France had been around for decades before Ligue 1 was created in 1932. The competition was founded as National, changed to Division 1 a year later, and kept that name until 2002 when it went back to its current name.
Like many sporting competitions in Europe, the league was canceled during the Second World War, given that large parts of France were under German occupation for several years.
During the league's early years, the format and structure regularly changed, including the number of teams. There are currently 18 teams in Ligue 1, but throughout its history, this number has been as low as 14 in the 1933-1934 season with a period of 20 clubs competing between 2002 and 2023.
Both Ligue 1 and Italy's Serie A expanded to 20 teams in the early 2000s, but Ligue 1 recently decided to return to the 18-team format while Serie A has retained 20 teams.
Here's a video explaining the financial reasons that ultimately led to the reduction of Ligue 1 to 18 teams.
During the 1970s and 1980s, there were two hugely successful clubs in Ligue 1: Saint-Étienne and Paris Saint-Germain. Olympique de Marseille dominated in the 1990s before Olympique Lyonnais won 7 titles in a row in the 2000s.
After being bought by Qatar Sports Investments (essentially the Qatari government), Paris Saint-Germain have been able to invest heavily in their squad, resulting in a lot of domestic success, but not much success in European competitions, unlike the English Premier League side Manchester City, who've found a lot of success following huge levels of investment.
The Ligue 1 Format
Ligue 1 is a round-robin league where each team plays every other team twice. With its current format including 18 teams, this means that every team plays 34 matches.
3 points
1 point
0 points
The league, like many others in Europe, runs between August and May, but this can change according to other soccer tournaments.
Teams can be promoted and relegated in French soccer and how this works has changed multiple times throughout the competition's history, often to change the number of teams in the league.
Currently, the bottom two teams are relegated to Ligue 2 and 1st and 2nd place from Ligue 2 are promoted. 3rd from Ligue 2 and 16th from Ligue 1 then play in two relegation play-off matches, where the winner (decided by the total score across both matches), takes up the final place in Ligue 1. The loser is cosigned to Ligue 2. This is similar to the promotion and relegation used for the last free place in Germany's Bundesliga.
Who Are the Most Successful Teams in Ligue 1?
If you're looking for a French soccer club to follow, you might want to look at the teams that have found success in France's top league.
Some teams have been successful more recently than others, but these are the teams that have won the most Ligue 1 (or its predecessors) titles. That way, you might discover a team worth supporting with historical heritage rather than any recent titles.
Nice
Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice (OGC Nice) won 4 titles during the 1950s, when they also won France's domestic cup, the Coupe de France, twice. They would win the cup again much later in the 1996-1997 and make the final in the 2021-2022 season.
Reims
Stade de Reims or simply Reims have 6 French league titles. These were all won in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s with two Coupe de France titles in the 1950s as well.
More recently, Reims qualified for the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds but was knocked out in the 3rd round following a penalty shootout defeat to the Hungarian side Fehérvár.
Lille
Lille Olympique Sporting Club, LOSC, or Lille also won 6 French league titles, with many of them during the same era as Reims' victories.
They were also one of the six teams to win a championship in six years in Ligue 1 in the 2010-2011 season.
However, perhaps the most important of their league titles was the 2020-2021 Ligue 1 title, where they beat favorites Paris Saint-Germain by a single point, breaking their 3-season streak of Ligue 1 titles.
Bordeaux
While Girondins de Bordeaux are currently playing in France's second league, Ligue 2, they've also won 6 French top-flight titles.
Their most recent league title was in 2008-2009 and were playing in the UEFA Europa League as recently as the 2018-2019 season.
Unfortunately, financial issues have cost the club dearly. They were relegated at the end of the 2021-2022 season and have spent the last two seasons in the second tier of French football.
Lyon
Olympique Lyonnais, OL, or simply Lyon, are France's sixth most successful club in terms of league titles.
These 7 league titles all game in a record-breaking era of dominance with OL winning all the titles consecutively, a feat not even Paris Saint-Germain has been able to replicate.
consecutive Ligue 1 titles.
They've also won the Coupe de France 5 times, with the most recent victory in the 2011-2012 season.
Like many French clubs, European success has eluded them, despite reaching the semi-finals in the UEFA Champions League in the 2009-2010 and 2019-2020 seasons and the UEFA Europa League semifinals in 2016-2017.
Nantes
Nantes has won the French league 8 times, most recently in the 2000-2001 season. Their other victories came between the 1960s and 1990s. They also recently won the Coupe de France in the 2021-2022 season.
Monaco
Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club or AS Monaco is a soccer club from the principality of Monaco.
This is not Monaco's national side, but rather a club based in the principality that plays within the French football system. Like Nantes, Monaco also has 8 league titles, but their most recent one in 2016-2017 stopped Paris Saint-Germain from winning a fifth consecutive title.
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is the first French club in our list to feature a star, a sign that they've won the top league at least times.
Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire or ASSE have won exactly 10 league titles and was the first side to do so, achieving their tenth title in the 1980-1981 season.
They're currently playing in Ligue 2 following their relegation at the end of the 2021-2022 season, despite qualifying for and playing in the UEFA Europa League just two seasons earlier! That said, the campaign ended miserably with 4 draws and 2 losses from the six matches they played in the group stage.
Marseille
Olympique de Marseille is another French team with 10 league titles. The most recent of which was in the 2009-2010 season.
Marseille also boasts 10 Coupe de France victories and the 1992-1993 European Cup, the tournament that's now the UEFA Champions League, which still remains out of reach for their fiercest rivals, Paris Saint-Germain.
The rivalry between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille is dubbed “Le Classique”, a French translation of the Spanish term El Clásico, used to refer to the match between La Liga sides Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Paris Saint-Germain
Last but not least, we have Paris Saint-Germain. Statistically, Ligue 1's most successful club. PSG has won the French league 11 times, with 9 of those titles between 2012 and today. Their other titles came in the 1985-1986 and 1993-1994 seasons.
They've won the Coupe de France 14 times and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup once in the 1995-1996 season.
While the investment from their owners has helped them attract soccer's biggest stars and a lot of domestic success, this hasn't yet translated into success on club soccer's European stage.
Why You Should Watch Ligue 1
If you enter into any conversation about soccer online, which we wouldn't always recommend, you'll likely see criticism being leveled at Ligue 1.
The dominance of Paris Saint-Germain and seemingly no effort to curb their spending in comparison to their opponents has left many fans thinking that not only is Ligue 1 a one-club league, but it's one with little to no quality outside of PSG's superstars.
However, Ligue 1 can still throw up surprises. Despite Paris Saint-Germain's eyewatering budget and expected domination each season, they didn't win the 2020-2021 season or the 2016-2017 season, which were won by Lille (LOSC) and AS Monaco respectively.
Let's not forget that in the 2000s, when Olympique Lyon dominated and won the league 7 times in a row, no other team, not even Paris Saint-Germain, despite all their money, has been unable to achieve.
There's still hope for Ligue 1, too. Between Lyon's last league title in the 2007-2008 season and the 2012-2013 season, there were six different champions in six seasons!
Ligue 1 is still ranked as one of Europe's best leagues and France won the World Cup in 2018, with more players in the squad from Ligue 1 teams than any other league.
There's good soccer to be watched and while many of Paris Saint-Germain's fixtures offer up a chance to see some of the world's best players, they don't often provide competitive fixtures.
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