{"id":347299,"date":"2025-08-15T19:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347299\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:31:14","slug":"europes-finest-could-not-stop-psg-what-chance-do-ligue-1-clubs-have-ligue-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347299\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s finest could not stop PSG. What chance do Ligue 1 clubs have? | Ligue 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Europe\u2019s elite could not contain Paris Saint-Germain last season, what chance is there for Ligue 1\u2019s impoverished chasing pack? Before the season has even started, their rivals seem to have submitted to this logic. Never have PSG felt more untouchable than they do now. Chelsea found the recipe<\/a> for dismantling Luis Enrique\u2019s machine but the rest of Europe floundered last season. Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Milan all fell by the wayside as PSG were crowned European champions.<\/p>\n

That success came at a time when PSG had never looked more vulnerable under Qatar Sports Investments ownership. Despite their prodigious talents Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Lionel Messi were symptoms of the wider ills of the club\u2019s management. But they ensured one thing: that PSG were unshakeable favourites in every domestic game for a decade.<\/p>\n

When Mbapp\u00e9, the last remnant of PSG\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cbling-bling era\u201d, left last summer, there was a feeling of fallibility. Perpetual PSG dominance still seemed likely but, unlike in previous years, there was no longer the certainty. Rivals could sense it. Marseille<\/a> and Lyon in particular spent big, the latter vocal in their ambition to dethrone PSG, champions of France three years running.<\/p>\n

The rest is history: a fourth consecutive Ligue 1<\/a> title, a Coupe de France, a Troph\u00e9e des Champions, and most importantly, a first Champions League title followed. No wonder their rivals\u2019 response this summer has been one of submission. The Marseille manager, Roberto De Zerbi, speaks about competing with PSG \u201cbetter\u201d, rather than actually competing with them. Monaco\u2019s chief executive, Thiago Scuro, says the club\u2019s objective is to go one better than last season and pip Marseille to second.<\/p>\n

PSG celebrate with the Champions League trophy. Photograph: Sadak Souici\/EPA<\/p>\n

Catching up with PSG would be difficult enough. Introduce the context of TV rights, a recurring issue that leaves clubs counting the pennies again this summer, and it becomes nigh-on impossible. Last summer DAZN acquired the rights to broadcast Ligue 1 for the next five seasons for less than half the LFP\u2019s asking price. Worse still, it has backed out after only one season. The league\u2019s governing body has now opted to launch its own channel, Ligue1+.<\/p>\n

With that, the short-to-medium-term outlook is bleak for clubs. Nicolas de Tavernost, the chief executive of LFP Media, has said the 2025-26 season will be \u201cdifficult in terms of domestic TV rights\u201d. Clubs are all too aware of that and, in their meetings with the DNCG, French football\u2019s financial watchdog, earlier this summer, they had to budget for zero euros of TV revenue.<\/p>\n

It is hardly surprising that PSG\u2019s rivals are pessimistic about their chances of closing down the European champions on shoestring budgets. Clubs have adapted their transfer strategies and have been particularly attentive to the free-agent market. Paul Pogba\u2019s move to Monaco<\/a> is the most high-profile piece of business done by any Ligue 1 side; the club also signed Eric Dier on a free. Marseille have signed the English duo Angel Gomes and CJ Egan-Riley for nothing; and Olivier Giroud joined Lille as a free agent following the termination of his deal at LAFC.<\/p>\n

Naturally, such recruitment has affected the age profile of squads competing at the top. All of last season\u2019s top five \u2013 PSG, Marseille, Monaco, Nice and Lille<\/a> \u2013 have seen the average age of their squads increase, with PSG now the youngest. Youth was the one competitive advantage that rivals had over PSG during the gal\u00e1cticos era, but it is one they have now lost.<\/p>\n

PSG\u2019s players are getting younger, too. Illia Zabarnyi, 22, has arrived from Bournemouth for \u00a354.5m as the long-term replacement for the 31-year-old Marquinhos, and the 23-year-old Lucas Chevalier has arrived from Lille for \u00a347.5m to unseat the 26-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma. Youth is a weapon, as PSG showed in Munich in May. But it isn\u2019t their only weapon. Their expensively assembled juggernaut also has a core of players in their prime: Achraf Hakimi, Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz, Vitinha and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, the favourite to win the Ballon d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

They have more than enough to keep last year\u2019s closest challengers, Marseille and Monaco, at arm\u2019s length. Behind them, the gap has increased in a league that feels increasingly stratified. Nice have lost their player of the season from last year, Evann Guessand<\/a>, as well as the goalkeeper Marcin Bulka, and they have not invested heavily this window. Lille have been hit by the departures of Chevalier, Jonathan David, Gomes and Bafod\u00e9 Diakit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Lyon\u2019s well-documented financial issues<\/a> have meant that budget options have replaced the likes of Rayan Cherki, Lucas Perri and Alexandre Lacazette, with Paulo Fonseca admitting that his squad \u201cmaybe isn\u2019t better\u201d than last season\u2019s. Strasbourg have invested in some promising prospects again but Liam Rosenior\u2019s inexperienced side have lost their best players from last season, Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic, and they have to contend with European football this season, potentially limiting their ability to climb up the table.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned clubs again look the favourites to challenge for European football and so, heading into the new season, there is a feeling of inertia. That feeling is only heightened by the lack of change in the dugouts. In contrast to the managerial merry-go-round across the border in Italy, there have been only two changes in Ligue\u00a01, with the former Lyon manager Pierre Sage replacing Will Still at Lens, and Lu\u00eds Castro coming in for Antoine Kombouar\u00e9 at Nantes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PSG and Paris FC are very close neighbours. Photograph: Robbert Frank Hagens\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The continuity in Ligue 1 is disrupted only by the addition of Paris FC. Only 44 metres separate their stadium from PSG\u2019s, and while there is a gulf between the sides on the pitch, that gap is expected to shrink in years to come. Backed by the Arnault family, who were fifth in Forbes\u2019 list of the richest people in the world in 2025<\/a>, Paris FC also have the guiding hand of Red Bull and J\u00fcrgen Klopp to help.<\/p>\n

Unlike Saint-\u00c9tienne, who have wealthy backers and made the jump to Ligue 1 last season, Paris FC\u2019s recruitment this summer is more tailored towards survival. By signing exciting talented young players such as Zuriko Davitashvili and Lucas Stassin rather than adding experience, Saint-\u00c9tienne put the cart before the horse. Paris FC<\/a> have not made the same mistake. The forward Moses Simon brings a wealth of Ligue 1 experience, which should suffice in ensuring their safety this season.<\/p>\n

Their long-term aim is to alter the landscape in the capital, and in France more generally. They have the financial means and the scope to do so. But the time to challenge PSG\u2019s hegemony is far from nigh in a league in which time, it feels, is standing still.<\/p>\n

This is an article by <\/strong>Get French Football News<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Europe\u2019s elite could not contain Paris Saint-Germain last season, what chance is there for Ligue 1\u2019s impoverished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-347299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115034448446198275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}