Ligue 1 has been seen as a league dominated by a single club – PSG – for many years. Since the French giants were acquired by Qatari investors in 2011, PSG have heavily dominated Ligue 1, winning nine of the 12 available titles in this period and occasionally losing out to other teams.
PSG’s dominance of the league without any European success has led to a wave of jokes on Ligue 1’s quality, with many people believing only a team as money-backed as PSG can continue to dominate other teams who do not have the same financial prowess. However, with Lens’ win over Arsenal in the UCL yesterday, perhaps the league is not as inferior as everyone thinks.
Why do some soccer fans call Ligue 1 the “farmers league”?
Ligue 1 may be one of Europe’s top five leagues, but not many people outside of France take the league seriously. Soccer fans from other countries are always quick to point out how one team has dominated the league in the past few years, albeit very unfairly.
Money-backed PSG have invested heavily in some of the world’s best talents since being taken over by Qatari investors in 2011. Their shirts have been worn by some of the most gracious players the game has seen, including Lionel Messi, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Angel Di Maria, Edison Cavani, and most recently, Kylian Mbappe.
The unfair dominance is perceived to be in the hands of PSG because they have more money than other teams in the league, making competition very unfair. According to GOAL, the term “farmers league” is used to describe the lack of quality players in many Ligue 1 teams, with some fans poking fun at these clubs about how they have players whose part-time jobs are farming.
Also, the lack of success in the Champions League hasn’t helped the league’s public image. Marseille remains the only French team to have won the UCL when they lifted the trophy in 1993, beating AC Milan. Since then, only Monaco (2004) and PSG (2020) have reached the competition’s finals.
Ligue 1 jokes after Lens beat Arsenal in the UCL
Arsenal lost their first UCL game of the season yesterday in a narrow 2-1 defeat to Lens despite going ahead early in the game through Gabriel Jesus. Unfortunately, two goals from Lens in each half of the game meant that the Gunners were unable to secure their second win of the new UCL campaign, much to the delight of Ligue 1.
The league quickly took to Twitter to post, “Farmers League strikes again,” in reference to the fact that a team from a supposed ‘lesser’ league had beaten a Premier League giant.
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