LIGUE 1 STRUGGLES AGAINST FOREIGN COMPETITORS

So far this season the Premier League has seen 5 matches in which teams have scored six goals or more, including Manchester United’s 7-1 victory over Blackburn.  Six-goal hauls are also reasonably common in La Liga, especially when Real Madrid or Barcelona are involved. However such scorelines are very rare indeed in France. No team has scored six goals in a Ligue 1 match in the last five seasons. This goes a long way to explaining why Ligue 1 struggles to bring in the crowds like other major European leagues.

A look at the attendance tables of Ligue 1 paints a bleak picture for the French top tier.

The average attendance for a Ligue 1 match is 20,101. This is less than half the Bundesliga’s average attendance, more than 14,000 less than the English Premier League’s average, and considerably less than Spain’s average. Even in Italy where clubs are always battling for fans due to crowd troubles, corruption and the recent comparative failure of Italian clubs in Europe, the average is over 3,000 higher than in France.

On top of that only seven out of Ligue 1’s twenty clubs have an average attendance of more than 20,000, compared to eighteen in England and Germany. Ignoring Olympique de Marseille’s exceptionally high 52,115 average attendance, not a single French club has an average over 40,000.

France Football editor Denis Chaumier claimed in September that French football supporters would rather stay at home and watch some exciting Spanish or English football than go watch matches in Ligue 1. The English Premier League and Spanish La Liga promise fast, pulsating football with goals galore. Ligue 1 on the other hand has more goalless draws than any other major league in Europe.

Last week-end for example, only two games produced more than 2.5 goals in Ligue 1. Likewise only two Ligue 1 games saw both teams score. The statistics suggest that Ligue 1’s a bit boring. The statistics are spot on.

Since moving to France I’ve had the opportunity to watch many Ligue 1 matches and more often than not I’ve been left as satisfied as a Lion in a vegan food store.

Ultra-defensive, conservative and unadventurous football is the norm unfortunately. Many teams favour defensive 451 or rigid, inflexible 442 formations, which leave teams heavily dependent on strikers for goals. Teams are so desperate not to lose that they sacrifice all attacking flir in favour of more structured, operational tactics. These styles are very efficient, but also very bland.

After many discussions with French football fans I’ve come to the conclusion that most have three clubs. Each fan tends to support one of the French big 4 (Marseille, PSG, Lyon, Bordeaux), their local team and an English team. When asked which one they prefer to watch, they always give the same response; the foreign team that plays the good football.

French football is suffering due to the popularity of foreign leagues. Stadiums aren’t being filled, shirts aren’t selling and TV rights are going cheap. As a result clubs are unable to bring in the top players required to improve the league and the vicious circle continues.

This problem’s longstanding and by now most people have stopped trying to correct the status quo. Most of the genuine top class talent discovered by French clubs leave at a young age. The big rising talents of the last few years (Benzema, Nasri, Ben Arfa, and Obertan) have all left for big foreign clubs and left fans to devise star players out of mediocrity. The stars of Ligue 1 these days are Nenê, Payet, Gignac and Remy. They’re hardly world beaters.

The French league’s always struggled massively to compete with the likes of the English Premier League, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga. A look at Ligue 1 clubs’ shameful history in the Champions’ League and its predecessor the European Cup will tell you that Ligue 1 is one of the most overrated leagues in Europe. Portugal and the Netherlands have both seen more European Cup winners than France. The country that invented the European Cup has only produced one winner in 54 years. Marseille’s 1993 victory puts France level with Romania, Scotland and the former Yugoslavia when it comes to European Cup wins.

 We can all see that French club football’s never been that good. Ligue 1’s always been over-hyped as a result of the national side’s successes. What’s different is that these days there seems to be a real lack of interest in what goes on in France’s top division.

The modern Ligue 1 is no more than a feeder league for the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. The competition leaves fans uninspired and just like the players, looking elsewhere for their top class football.

The solution is simple; heavy investment in the league so that clubs can lure the world’s finest players. Sounds easy, but we all know that when faced with a choice Arabian royalty and US oil tycoons are always going to see England as more fertile land for them to plant their seeds. Unfortunately the future still looks pretty bleak for Ligue 1.