Ligue 1 has lost its title in Europe’s top five leagues.
“Ligue 1 has been eliminated from Europe’s top five leagues in this season’s UEFA rankings,” global media outlet ESPN reported on Thursday. The calculation is based on the sum of each country’s performance in UEFA competitions over the past five years.”
“Many statistics and articles refer to the English Premier League (EPL), La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 as Europe’s top five leagues. However, according to UEFA statistics, the Ligue 1 may fall out of the top five.”
“The Ligue 1 is still ranked fifth in the UEFA country coefficient, which is based on the previous five seasons. However, with the start of the new season, the 2018-19 season has been excluded from these calculations, dropping Ligue 1 below Eredivisie to sixth place.”
One of the reasons for this is the poor performance of Ligue 1’s flagship club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), in the UEFA Champions League (UCL). PSG has invested astronomical amounts of money since being acquired by Qatar Sports Investment Authority (QSI) in 2011. They have brought in superstars like Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, and Lionel Messi. They have dominated the French Ligue 1 every season and have won a whopping nine league titles since their acquisition.
However, they struggled in the UEFA UCL. They were strong. They just couldn’t reach the heights. PSG has dominated the group stage every season. Last season, they won four and drew two in the group stage and made it to the round of 16 before being knocked out by Bayern Munich.
Since the takeover, PSG has qualified for the UEFA UCL every season. With the exception of a group stage exit in 2011-12, they have reached the round of 16 or higher every season. Their best result was a final appearance in 2019-20, followed by four quarterfinals and five round of 16 appearances in 2020-21.
This affected their UEFA national coefficient. “PSG is the only club to reach the final of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) since Monaco in 2004, and Marseille’s 2018 UEFA Europa League (UEL) final was also the first since their own 2004 triumph,” said France’s Sports Lens on March 3.
Dutch Eredivisie clubs, on the other hand, have made strides. “Feyenoord reached the UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) final in 2022-23, while AZ Alkmaar reached the semifinals. The Dutch team’s success has earned them significant points.”
In the last five seasons, the EPL has held the top spot with a total of 88.928 points, followed by Spain’s La Liga in second place with 75.927 points, according to the publication. In third place was Italy’s Serie A with 71.569 points, and in fourth was the Bundesliga with 69.552 points. In fifth place is the Eredivisie with a score of 52.100, and in sixth place is Ligue 1 with a score of 51.914.
The biggest visible change is the seeding for the UEFA competition. If Ligue 1 continues to slide and their UEFA ranking drops further, they could find themselves without a top seed in the UEFA UCL stage.
PSG, meanwhile, are looking to turn things around in the UEFA UCL. Last season, Lionel Messi and his squad of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, 메이저토토사이트 and others challenged for the title, but fell short in the round of 16. Ahead of this season, they’re looking to make six new signings, including a new manager.
“An announcement is expected soon,” said Fabrizio Romano, a journalist familiar with European soccer news, on Tuesday (Feb. 2), revealing the names and photos of six players. Starting with Luca Hernandez, the list includes Manuel Ugarte, Marco Asensio, Cher N’Dour, Lee Kang-in, and Milan Skriniar.
First of all, PSG are in the midst of a managerial search, so it’s likely that Enrique will be able to bring in a number of players who have verbal agreements in place. On April 4, Juanmi Sanchez, a reporter for Spain’s Marca, said, “Lee Kang-in will play for PSG. Real Mallorca and PSG have reached a complete agreement on the transfer of Lee Kang-in, who will receive a transfer fee of 22 million euros (approximately KRW 310 billion).”
“Twenty percent of that will go to Lee’s coffers. This is because he secured a portion of his future transfer fee in exchange for waiving his signing bonus when he joined as a free agent from Valencia. Mallorca will get more than €17 million,” he added. If the report is to be believed, Lee Kang-in will pocket around €5 million.