The Messi Era is Over... Welcome to Reality Ligue 1

France are one of the strongest footballing nations on the planet, and have been for a lot of their history. The national team are often favourites to win major tournaments and the country produces a plethora of players yearly that go on to play at the top of the game. However, behind the national team’s success is a football league that is currently stuck in a broken system, and is slowly slipping away from its fellow competitors such as La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and the Premier League.

Top Youth Production

Every transfer window, players leave Ligue 1 as some of the biggest prospects in Europe, PSG’s academy alone has produced Kingsley Coman, Alphonse Areola, Presnel Kimpembe, Christopher Nkunku, Xavi Simons and Warren Zaire-Emery in the last decade. This has left over 60% of Ligue 1 clubs making transfer net profit this season, with a third of the teams in the league making over €20 million worth of profit in 2024/25. When it comes to talent production, France has no issues, but attracting players to the league is another story, and it often takes large financial moves to do so.

PSG Dominance

Paris Saint-Germain are the first thing that comes into most people's heads when the topic of Ligue 1’s issues is in question. The Parisians have won the title in 10 of the last 12 seasons, with it soon looking like that figure will rise to 11. To really paint the picture of how France’s footballing landscape has changed, in the five seasons leading up to PSG’s first title win of the Qatari Era, five different clubs won the Ligue 1 title. Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lille and Montpellier managed to accomplish something that is now unheard of in Europe and subsequently took part in one of the most exciting eras of French football.

Financial Ruin

It is now no coincidence that three of those five clubs are facing financial ruin, with Bordeaux now playing in the fourth tier after going into administration. A large factor behind so many clubs’ downfall is down to media broadcast deals, if clubs don’t have masses of financial backing and rely on income, then they find themselves in big trouble. Both Mediapro and Amazon have pulled out of TV deals amassing a billion euros combined. A situation that has left the President of Ligue de Football Professionnel’s assurance of €1 billion in broadcast deals simply an unfulfilled promise.

Struggles in Europe

Another issue not helping French football is their struggles in European competition, across the ‘top five leagues’, Ligue 1 has the fewest representatives in major finals in recent years. PSG’s 2020 Champions League Final and Marseille’s 2018 Europa League Final are the only occasions a French team has reached the summit in the last two decades and both ended in defeat. Of the seven French teams in UEFA competitions this season, only three have made it to the round of 16 in their respective tournaments (PSG, Lille and Lyon). With Nice failing to win any of their eight Europa League games and Lens not even making it to the first proper stage of the Conference League. A failure to compete at the highest level has left many outsiders looking down on the league as a whole.

A New Title Candidate

Something that Ligue 1 has lacked in the modern era is numerous title contenders. Paris FC could change that though, the club are gunning for promotion to the top flight and are now backed by one of the richest families in the world as of 2024. In unique circumstances, France’s capital has hosted just one top flight club for decades and therefore no fierce Paris derbies. Paris FC could finally bring some healthy competition to Ligue 1, it would also make the league more attractive, which could result in bigger and better TV deals, benefitting the league as a whole.