Football

History of the Ligue 1

Ligue 1 refers to the top division football league in France. It was called Division 1 till 2003. Ligue de Football Professionnel is the professional body for soccer in France that controls Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Ligue 1 is rated by UEFA as the fifth best professional soccer league in the world. Professional football began in 1932 in France with a break in soccer tournaments between 1939 and 1945 due to the Second World War.

This football league has varied the number of participating teams between 18 and 20. In its current format, the football league consists of 20 teams. During the season, the participating teams play each other twice in home and away games. The Ligue 1 winner and runner up qualify for Champions League group stages directly, whereas the third placed team needs to play a qualifying round. The teams placed from four to seven have a chance to play in the UEFA Europa League depending on the results of domestic cup competitions.

Previous Ligue 1 season(s)

Marseille are the only Ligue 1 football team to win the Champions League. They won it in 1993. Against all odds, they went on to beat AC Milan in Munich. In Ligue 1, AS Saint-Étienne has been the most successful team with a comprehensive 10 wins. Olympique de Marseille and FC Nantes are tied with 8 titles each. Closely behind are AS Monaco and Olympique Lyonnais with seven wins each. Olympique Lyonnais went through an incredible winning streak between 2002 and 2008, by bagging seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles. Ligue 1 in the recent past has been about Lyon and Lyon only. To dominate a competitive football league such as the Ligue 1 for seven consecutive soccer seasons in no mean feat. Lyon backed by their charismatic marksman Karim Benzema went on to clinch the Ligue 1 title in 2007–08 soccer season. He scored a record twenty goals. It took Bordeaux an amazing performance in the 2008-09 Ligue 1 football season to put an end to the seven year Lyon winning streak. André-Pierre Gignac scored 24 goals for Toulouse, as they finished a respectable fourth. The teams to be relegated were Caen, Nantes and Le Havre.