Soccer Betting - French League
History - Players Records - Winners - Teams - Standings
Ligue 1 or Première Division or Division 1 has been a professional league since 1932 and it is the top division of French football.
The French first division has changed the format of the teams numerous times, among 18 and 20. Currently the league hosts 20 teams and this is preferred by the clubs even if that means that they have to face a tighter schedule.
Each team of the League has to play each other twice during the season, home and away, and at the end of the season, the bottom three teams are relegated to the Ligue 2, and are replaced by the top three teams of the second league. This format was established in 1995.
The best three teams in the Ligue 1 qualify to the Champions League; the third teams enters to the final qualifying round and the top two enter directly to the group phase of the tournament. As well, the teams that finish the season in the fourth and fifth positions of the table qualify for the UEFA Cup and the sixth and the seventh have a chance to participate in this cup also depending of the result of two competitions that are played in France.
In the standings, when teams are equal in points, they are ranked counting the goal difference. This rule was established in 1966, before that, the teams were ranked using goal average, which used to favor the defensive.
The Ligue 1 is a very competitive league in Europe. The team with the best performance within the Ligue currently is the AS Saint-Étienne, which has won the Ligue Championship 10 times, even though the last one was almost 27 years ago. The Olympique de Marseille and the FC Nantes are tied with 8 championships each.
The Olympique Lyonnais team is currently the champion of the league, and it has won the seven latest championships consecutively.