French Le Championnat

The first football club ever created in France was Havre Football Club in 1872 and the founders were obviously English. But from 1872 to 1890's, the members played three different codes of football : association football, rugby football and combination (hybrid game from the first two ones). Members decide by votation during the General Meeting on November 18th 1884 to play combination but nobody was satisfied. The same year, the name of the club changed for Havre Athletic Club. The association football code received definitively the members adhesion in 1894. At the top of French football is of course the professional French League, which includes Ligue 1 (L1) and Ligue 2 (L2). The teams in these top two levels are fully professional. They also take part in the League Cup, called "Coupe de la Ligue". Note that "Ligue" (with a capital L) is the association of all the professional clubs. It is the body that rules and organizes L1 and L2 competitions.

Olympique de Lyon

On the 3rd of August 1950, the Doctor Trillat, Mss. Groslevin, Vitalis, Marceau, Carrel, Daurensan and Maillet create the Olympique de Lyon et du Rhône. President Grosvelin entrusts the former coach of the LOU, Oscar Heisserer, with carrying out an economic as well as judicious recruitment policy designed to reach Division 1 as of the first year. Should they top the table on 13 May 2006, Lyon will become the first French side to win five successive titles. Goalkeeper Grégory Coupet and company are currently level with Olympique de Marseille (champions from 1989-92) and AS Saint-Etienne (1967-70) in the hall of fame.

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Olympique de Marseille

Olympique de Marseille is a football team that plays in Ligue 1, the top level of the French Football League, based in Marseille. Founded in 1899, Marseille has won 9 French championships and 10 French Cups. The club also won the Champions League in 1993, defeating A.C. Milan in the final, only to be stripped of the domestic title that they had won in the same season following a match fixing scandal involving then president Bernard Tapie. Recently, Marseille succeeded in winning the 2005 Intertoto Cup, beating the likes of SS Lazio and Deportivo La Coruna in doing so, and earning another shot at the UEFA Cup. In their recent seasons back in Ligue 1, Marseille have been beaten regulary by rival teams such as Lyon, Monaco and Paris Saint Germain, as chances for a title appear to be growing ever slimmer. With a nightmare start to the 2005/06 Ligue 1 season, it looks like Marseille's title challenge has gone once again for another year.

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AS Monaco

The Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club is a Monegasque football club, founded in 1924. They became a professional club after 1948. Although the club is in Monaco, it has always competed in the French football structure. For this reason, it has always been regarded with a certain suspicion by a segment of the French population. Some, like former Olympique Marseille president, have hinted that Monaco should not be allowed to use its income-tax exemption as it gives it an unfair advantage. This would roughly equal to adding 1/3 extra to A.S. Monaco's budget. AS Monaco's home ground is Stade Louis II, an all-seater with a capacity of 18,500 in the Fontvieille section of Monaco. The stadium, as well as the Fontvieille district, was built entirely on land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco were finalists in the UEFA Champions League in 2004, but were defeated by FC Porto.

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Paris St. Germain

Paris Saint-Germain FC, or PSG, is a French football club based in Paris. The club stadium is the 49,000 seater Parc des Princes. The club was founded in August 1970. Gathering funds from 20,000 subscribers the founding marked the reappearance of a major club in Paris. The driving forces were Pierre-Etienne Guyot of Racing-Club de France and the owners of Sangermanois. The union of R.C. Paris and Sangermanois resulted in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The new club played in the Nationale (second) division for the 1970-71 season. The club won the division and was promoted to the top division in their first season. The club has remained in the top division since 1974, winning the league twice, in 1985-86 and in 1993-94. The club has also won the Coupe de France six times (1982, 1983, 1993, 1995, 1998, and 2004). In Europe the club won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996 and has had a number of good runs in the Champions League, but never beyond the semi-finals.

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Other European leagues

English Premiere League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga, Dutch Eredivisie, French Le Championnat

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