Overview
Eighteen clubs, and the best youth development pipeline in Europe.
Ligue 1 is the top division of French football. It reduced from twenty clubs to eighteen in 2023, and now plays 34 matches from August to May, with the bottom two relegated and the sixteenth entering a playoff.
French clubs are the most productive developers of elite players in Europe — Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, N'Golo Kanté, Eduardo Camavinga and a long list before them came through Ligue 1 academies — and the league's business model depends on selling them on. Paris Saint-Germain, backed by Qatari ownership since 2011, have dominated the domestic competition for over a decade.
2026-27 Table
Table order as published in the feed (points, then the competition's tiebreakers). 18 teams. Captured 6 October 2026 from the ESPN public standings feed.
| # | Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AS Monaco | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 13 |
| 2 | Lyon | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 11 |
| 3 | Paris FC | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 11 |
| 4 | Lille | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 10 |
| 5 | Stade Rennais | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 10 |
| 6 | Paris Saint-Germain | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 7 | +1 | 8 |
| 7 | Angers | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 7 |
| 8 | Strasbourg | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 7 |
| 9 | Le Mans | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 6 |
| 10 | AJ Auxerre | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 6 |
| 11 | Brest | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 5 |
| 12 | Lorient | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 5 |
| 13 | Toulouse | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 5 |
| 14 | Nice | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 5 |
| 15 | Lens | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 4 |
| 16 | Troyes | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 11 | -7 | 4 |
| 17 | Marseille | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 3 |
| 18 | Le Havre AC | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 2 |
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
Professional French football dates to 1932. Saint-Étienne dominated the 1960s and 1970s, Marseille the early 1990s — winning the first Champions League in 1993, though a domestic match-fixing scandal cost them that season's league title — and Lyon won seven consecutive championships from 2002.
Qatar Sports Investments bought Paris Saint-Germain in 2011 and made it the dominant force in France, though European success took longer: the club lost the 2020 final and finally won the Champions League in 2025, then retained it in 2026, beating Arsenal on penalties in Budapest.
A collapse in the league's domestic television deal in 2024 forced clubs into severe cost cutting and has accelerated the pace at which French players leave for other leagues.
Governance
The Ligue de Football Professionnel administers Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 under the French Football Federation, UEFA and FIFA.