On the eve of Le Classique, is French football really in that bad a state?
The only French football match that anyone outside of France really cares for is Le Classique. Dominated for the past four years by PSG, who last lost the fixture 3-0 in 2011. This fixture is becoming less and less illustrious to the people outside of France. No longer is it that big a deal, they understand that as it is there really is only one dominant team in Ligue 1 and it is Les Parisiennes. People consistently point to a broken system in French football that is allowing PSG to monopolise football and make themselves so dominant. Is it as broken as they think though?
The arguments will continue that PSG are spoiling French football by becoming so dominant, buying players for obscene amounts of money and with no regard for financial fair play. Looking at it objectively, however, football in France has always had dominant champions, certainly not ‘wealthy’ champions but almost always dominant.
Taking a look at Ligue 1 throughout the professional era, it is noticeable that, yes, a lot of different teams have had the honour of becoming champions. But more often than not, teams win multiple back-to-back championships. It is not hard to remember the early 2000s when Olympique Lyon were so dominant. Sonny Anderson, Juninho Pernambucano and later Karim Benzema helped them achieve a record seven domestic titles in a row.
Looking back further, Marseille had a spell of domestic domination in the late 1980s continuing into the early 1990s and again were helped by players synonymous with good football, Jean-Pierre Papin and current French national team coach Didier Deschamps, two names which stand with the best that have ever played in the French top division. Going further back still to Saint Etienne in the 60s and 70s, coached by the late Albert Batteux, who made football look easy and dominated for multiple titles back-to-back.
It is clear then that football in France is different to Europe’s other elite competitions. Sure, teams in England, Spain and Italy have spells of domination but not quite to the extent that French teams do. It is hard to put a finger on why. We saw a Lyon team so dominant for seven consecutive seasons all of a sudden struggle to have any impact. Certainly other clubs clued in and began poaching players but such a drop-off happens eventually to all teams that dominate Ligue 1.
Saint Etienne took five years to win a championship after the 1975-76 season, while Marseille had to wait 18 seasons. The comparison is there, of course, with English team Liverpool, who were so dominant in the 70s and 80s but have so far failed to lift the Premier League.
Even then with Manchester United dominating in the 90s and 2000s, they did not ever win more than three titles in a row.
The rhetoric used by many lately of a monopoly in French football is true – there can be no denying that. PSG are dominant at the moment, but history has show throughout French football that these spells are cyclical.
It is easy to have a go at Paris St Germain. They are a relatively new team founded just 45 years ago, but to argue they are hurting French football is ridiculous. In France, football teams go through phases of dominance.
It could just be that this is PSG’s time.
For what it is worth, this edition of Le Classique will be worth watching. PSG have yet to really get going despite remaining undefeated while Marseille are also struggling, suffering four defeats in eight and winning just two of the remaining four matches.
It could be just another run-of-the-mill average performance similar to what has been shown by PSG so far but it could be the catalyst for a Marseille side that is in need of something. The Parc des Princes, which will be without the main Marseille supporters club, who have elected not to travel to the match after crowd trouble marred their game against Lyon and left them with stadium restrictions, will still be in full voice come Sunday.
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