Current football results and modern history of the French Ligue 1
The French football league is considered one of the five most prestigious football leagues in Europe, along with the Premier League, Primera Division, Serie A and the Bundesliga. Football today results for the past few years demonstrate total dominion of PSG over other clubs. Though, such a balance of power in Ligue 1 was not always the same.
Until 2001, in addition to Saint-Etienne FC and Olympique de Marseille, Nantes FC and Monaco FC won the most titles. But in 2001 Olympique Lyon dominated the league for a few years. This club won its first championship in France in 2002, and for 7 consecutive years no one could move it from the first place of the table. Meanwhile, since the 2002/03 season, the competition changed its name from Premier Division to Ligue 1, which still consisted of 38 laps. Olympique Lyon’s dominance streak continued until 2008, when Bordeaux FC finally managed to win the French championship. A year later, Olympique de Marseille won the league, equaling Saint-Etienne in the number of titles won. These were the years when the champions of Ligue 1 changed almost every season. For six seasons in a row, the championship was won by a different team each time:
- Olympique Lyon;
- Bordeaux FC;
- Olympique de Marseille;
- Lille OSC;
- Montpellier FC;
- Paris Saint-Germain.
Paris Saint-Germain started its winning streak in the 2012/13 season. This capital city football club was purchased by Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi two years earlier. After this it became the predominant force of the French football league and won it 5 times from 2013 to 2018. Only in the 2016/17 season Monaco FC was better.
So far 77 clubs have participated in the French top league according to football today`s result. However, none of them in their history managed to avoid relegation. Olympique de Marseille has participated in the most league seasons. Here are some more interesting facts about Ligue 1. For example, goalkeeper Mikael Landreau is the leader with the most appearances in the history of the French football league. In 1997-2014 he played 618 matches for Nantes FC, Paris Saint-Germain, Lille OSC and Bastia FC. Delio Onnis remains the all-time top scorer. The Argentinian scored 299 goals in 449 French league appearances for Monaco FC, Reims FC, Tours FC and SC Toulon.
How does League 1 play
The French ligue 1 fixtures consist of 38 rounds and 279 matches are played during one season of League 1. The league uses a round-robin system. This means that each club must face nineteen opponents twice – once at its own stadium and once at the opponent’s territory. For winning the game, the team gets 3 points. In case of a draw, the teams receive 1 point, and in case of defeat, none. In case if at the end of the season two teams receive the same number of points, the positions in the table shall be determined according to statistics in the following order:
- total score in games between the two teams;
- number of goals in games between the two teams;
- total goals scored for all games.
As a last resort, the place in the table shall be determined by lot. As a result, French ligue 1 fixture are formed as a result of various factors, which can be found on specialized websites of football statistics.