Is the French league so bad?

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In fairness Marseille had the stuffing knocked out of them by 3 top top sides and then gave up trying last night.

But Ligue 1 is very far behind the top4 leagues imo, always top youngsters coming through though. I guess it got caught in a feeder cycle in which the best players moved on and its hard to get out of that.

I have it on a similar level to the Italian league. Only because of the dire state if Italian league and I'm biased. With oil and Russia money in French football,it'll soon overtake Italian league.

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Reply 21

ZÃ¼rich

Original post by 419

Makes the league even less interesting to me...

Italy have Juve, ACM and Inter who are all capable of competing with PSG/Monaco whilst teams like Roma are more than a match for Lille etc.

Reply 22

CameronHayward

As someone else mentioned, the French league has had 6 different champions in the last 6 seasons, and if Monaco win this season, that will be 7 in 7. Whenever there is a lot of competition for places at the top of league, that country always performs worse in the CL. It is always the case. England were dominant in Europe when there was the 'big 4' but since Man City & Tottenham have come into the equation, we've not been as strong. Now Germany has a pretty settled 'big 2', they are now a lot stronger in Europe. When the likes of AC Milan, Inter & Juventus started struggling, Italy were worse in Europe. etc etc.

It's mainly all a side-effect of prize-money. Teams that are in the CL for a few years in a row will have accumulated a lot of prize money a built a strong team with it. A team that's always in and out of the CL struggles to build a team capable of actually challenging in the CL.

Reply 23

419

Original post by Zürich

Makes the league even less interesting to me...

Italy have Juve, ACM and Inter who are all capable of competing with PSG/Monaco whilst teams like Roma are more than a match for Lille etc.

Well it'll create a duopoly sure but now, there's the clout to attract the top players like falcao, Ibra, and as much as I hate it, it will make the league more interesting and appealing. Pretty sure more people are tuning into ligue 1 than ever before. It's basically going to eventually become la liga mk 2.

Marsielle when they get it together can compete with Roma and Lyon have proven they can give the best in Europe a game. They just need to overcome their austerity. Give them 2 years.

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 24

mojojojo101

The underlying problem with French football is money, there are only 2 clubs with even two penny's to rub together... Lyon are a complete mess financially and their performances on the pitch have suffered come their total lack of ability to replace players, Lille and Montpellier, while recent champions actually remain pretty small clubs and Marseille are not the team they were.

Personally I don't see it getting any better for French clubs, if reports are to be believed then Hollande's tax plans for the 'super-rich' could see the tax bill of some clubs triple (becuase French clubs pay tax for all their players), something that is quite obviously going to affect them in a market place they already can't compete in. When PSG were taken over it was suggested that their money would filter down though to the other clubs, but that really hasn't happened.

I don't think it's all bad news for France, they still have a very powerful youth set up with some great prospects coming through (look at their U20 world cup winning team) and the Monaco / PSG thing might still work in their favour but it doesn't look good, for me they need to do a lot to even hold their position as the 5th best league in Europe, Portugal has been steaming past them in European competition in recent years and the Ukrainian league in particular is making huge strides, both in Europe and domestically, still will be vey interesting to see what happens.

Reply 25

HarryJames

It's a pretty poor league in comparison with the four other main European leagues. PSG and Monaco are good but apart from that there's nothing

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Reply 26

TRS-T

Original post by Zürich

Makes the league even less interesting to me...

Italy have Juve, ACM and Inter who are all capable of competing with PSG/Monaco whilst teams like Roma are more than a match for Lille etc.