French Champions
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Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. Being the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Administered by the Ligue de Football Professionnel, Ligue 1 is contested by 18 clubs (as of the 2023-24 season) and operates on a system of promotion and relegation from and to Ligue 2.
Seasons run from August to May. Clubs play two matches against each of the other teams in the league - one home and one away - totalling to 34 matches over the course of the season. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played during weekday evenings. Play is regularly suspended the last weekend before Christmas for two weeks before returning in the second week of January. As of 2024, Ligue 1 is considered one of the top national leagues, ranked fifth in Europe, behind England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A and Germany's Bundesliga.
Ligue 1 was inaugurated on 11 September 1932 under the name National before switching to Division 1 after a year of existence. It continued to operate under that name until 2002, when it adopted its current name. Paris Saint-Germain are the most successful club with twelve league titles, while Lyon is the club that has won the most consecutive titles (seven between 2002 and 2008). Saint-Étienne was the first club with ten titles. With the presence of 73 seasons in Ligue 1, Marseille holds the record for most seasons among the elite, while Paris Saint-Germain hold the league record for longevity with 50 consecutive seasons (from 1974 to present). Nantes is the team with the longest consecutive unbeaten streak (32 matches) and the fewest number of defeats (one match) in a single season, doing so in the 1994-95 campaign. In addition, Nantes also holds the record for the longest time without losing at home with a run of 92 matches from May 1976 to April 1981.
The current champions are Paris Saint-Germain, who won a record twelfth title in the 2023-24 season. The league has been won on multiple occasions by foreign-based club Monaco, the presence of which within the league makes it a cross-border competition.
Ahead of the 2023-24 season, the number of teams in the league was reduced to 18; four teams in the 2022-23 Ligue 1 were relegated to Ligue 2 and only two teams in Ligue 2 were promoted to Ligue 1.
Foundation:
Professionalism in French football did not exist until July 1930, when the National Council of the French Football Federation voted 128-20 in favour of its adoption. The founders of professionalism in French football are Georges Bayrou, Emmanuel Gambardella, and Gabriel Hanot. Professionalism was officially implemented in 1932.
In order to successfully create a professional football league in the country, the Federation limited the league to twenty clubs. In order to participate in the competition, clubs were subjected to three important criteria:
The incoming club must have had positive results in the past.
The incoming club must be able to pull in enough revenue to balance its finances.
The incoming club must be able to successfully recruit at least eight professional players.
Many clubs disagreed with the subjective criteria, most notably Strasbourg, RC Roubaix, Amiens and Stade Français, while others like Rennes, due to fear of bankruptcy, and Lille, due to a conflict of interest, were reluctant to become professional. Lille's president, Henri Jooris, also chairman of the Ligue du Nord, feared his league would fold and proposed it become the second division of the new league. Eventually, many clubs earned professional status, though it became more difficult to convince clubs in the northern half of the country; Strasbourg, Roubaix and Amiens refused to accept the new league, while conversely Mulhouse, Excelsior AC Roubaix, Metz and Fives accepted professionalism. In southern France, clubs such as Marseille, Hyères, Montpellier, Nîmes, Cannes, Antibes and Nice were extremely supportive of the new league and accepted their professional status without argument.