Ligue 1

It is the highest football competition in France. Its first edition was in 1932/33, at that time it was still called National and from the following year it was called Division 1. It has only been called Ligue 1 since 2002. Football in France did not exist at a professional level until 1930. It was only then that efforts were made to create a professional football league. Georges Bayrou, Emmanuel Gambardella and Gabriel Hanot were responsible for this.

It is currently the fifth highest ranked professional football league according to the UEFA coefficient. It is preceded by the Spanish league (Primera División), the English league (Premier League), the German league (Bundesliga) and the Italian league (Serie A).

Clubs in Ligue 1

There are 20 clubs in France's top football competition. The two most successful teams are Olympique de Marseille and AS Saint-Étienne, which have 10 titles each. Eight time champions are AS Monaco FC, FC Nantes a Paris Saint-Germain FC. The last club, PSG, has dominated the league in recent years.

Competition format

The season is played from spring to autumn and all league clubs play each other in 38 matches on a one-on-one basis on home and away grounds. The teams that finish in the top two places go directly into the Champions League group stage. The third-placed team advances to the 4th preliminary round. The team in 4th place then heads to the Europa League.

The other two places in the Europa League go to the winners of the two French cup competitions, the Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue. Should either of these cups be won by a team in 1st to 4th place that has already qualified for the European competitions, then the 5th and 6th teams respectively can qualify for the Europa League.

The teams finishing in the last three places will be relegated to the second highest competition, Ligue 2. The top three teams in Ligue 2 will replace them in the top competition for the following season.