French Ligue 1

Football · France · 2026-2027

Ligue 1 (French: ; lit. 'League 1'), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de Football Professionnel, Ligue 1 is contested by 18 clubs 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. 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. The pre-war years were an open period in which several clubs had the opportunity to be crowned French champions. The first of these was Olympique Lillois. FC Sochaux-Montbéliard was the first club to win twice. The post-war period saw the emergence of new flagship clubs like Lille OSC and OGC Nice. Stade de Reims was the dominant club of the 1950s and early 1960s. Then, from the 1960s to the early 1980s, AS Saint-Étienne and FC Nantes dominated French football and engaged in a fierce rivalry at the top. Later in the 1980s, it was Girondins de Bordeaux's turn to establish themselves as the main force in the French championship. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Olympique de Marseille were a domineering team, winning four consecutive league titles from 1988–89 to 1991–92, and starred England international Chris Waddle and Ballon d'Or winner Jean-Pierre Papin, became the first french club to win the UEFA Champions League. Later in the 1990s, several clubs have emerged at the top of the national and European scene, such as PSG with George Weah, David Ginola and Raí, the FC Nantes of Japhet N'Doram and Claude Makélélé or the foreign-based club AS Monaco featured Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet, who would both go on to be amongst the most dominant strikers in Europe. In the 2000s, Olympique Lyonnais established a dynasty, winning 7 consecutive titles (2002–2008)—an unprecedented run in French football. From 2009–2012, four consecutive different clubs won the league: Bordeaux in 2008–09, Marseille in 2009–10, Lille In 2010–11, and Montpellier in 2011–12. During this era, Lille's Eden Hazard emerged as the league's star player. From 2012 onwards, the Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) takeover allowed Paris Saint-Germain to sign top players like Zlatan Ibrahimović, Thiago Silva, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, ushering in an era of complete dominance that lead them to win 12 championships and 2 UEFA Champions League since then. As of 2026, Ligue 1 is considered one of the top national leagues, ranked fifth in Europe, behind England's Premier League, Italy's Serie A, Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga. PSG are the most successful club with 14 league titles. Saint-Étienne was the first club with 10 titles. With the presence of 76 seasons in Ligue 1, Marseille holds the record for most seasons among the elite, while PSG hold the league record for longevity with 52 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. 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. The current champions are PSG, who won a record fourteenth title in the 2025–26 season. The league has been won on multiple occasions by Monaco, the presence of which within the league makes it a cross-border competition.