How Ligue 1 works: format, tie-breakers and relegation

Ligue 1 is the top division of French football and it runs as a straight league. Eighteen clubs share one group and play each other twice: 17 matches in the first half of the season and 17 in the second, so 34 games per club. A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a defeat nothing. The club with most points after the 34th round is champion. The bottom two drop into Ligue 2, and the side that finishes 16th still has to win a play-off to stay up.

The 18 club format is recent. On 3 June 2021 the LFP General Assembly, the body that runs professional football in France, approved the cut from 20 clubs to 18 by 97.28% of the votes, to take effect from the 2023/2024 season. The sums were settled at the end of 2022/2023, when four clubs went down from Ligue 1 and only two came up from Ligue 2. The second tier, Ligue 2 BKT, now has the same shape: 18 clubs, 17 matches each way.

The 2026/2027 calendar was approved by the LFP board on 4 December 2025. The season started on the weekend of 23 August 2026, with the first match on Friday the 21st, and the 34th and last round is set for Saturday 29 May 2027. There is no midweek round at all this season. The winter break comes after matchday 14, on the weekend of 13 December, and play resumes with matchday 15 on the weekend of 3 January 2027. The 31st Trophée des Champions was scheduled for the weekend of 15 August 2026.

How the table is decided

Scoring is simple: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a defeat. The rulebook also covers the match that never happens. A game lost by forfeit goes into the table as a 3 to 0 defeat. That looks like a footnote, but it moves goal difference, and goal difference is the very first thing used when two clubs finish level on points.

When two or more clubs end up on the same number of points, the league applies eight criteria in a fixed order. First, goal difference across the competition. Then points in the head to head, followed by goal difference in the head to head. Next come goals scored in the competition, the number of wins in the season and the number of away wins. The seventh criterion is discipline: a yellow card counts 1 point, a red counts 3, and the club with fewer points comes out on top. If everything is still level, the place is decided by drawing lots.

Two footnotes matter. The head to head criteria only apply once both matches between the tied clubs have been played; until then the league goes straight to criteria 4, 5, 6 and 7, in that order. And this list is new. It has been in force since 2025/2026 and was announced on 7 August 2025. Three criteria based on away goals, which were in the 2024/2025 rulebook, were dropped, and two based on wins came in. Winning often now counts for more than scoring on the road.

At the bottom the rulebook is short. After the final round the two lowest placed clubs in Ligue 1 are relegated and the top two in Ligue 2 go up, provided they meet the participation conditions set out in Title 1 of the administrative regulations. This system of two down plus one barrage and two up plus one barrage was announced by the LFP back in 2021, to apply once the transition period ended with the 2023/2024 season.

How the barrage works

The third promotion place is settled on the pitch. Once the league season ends, Ligue 2 stages play-offs between the clubs that finished 3rd, 4th and 5th. The 5th travels to the 4th in a single match. The winner then travels to the 3rd, again over one match. There is no extra time in either tie: if the teams cannot be separated in regulation time, the match goes straight to penalties. Whoever survives earns the right to play the barrage for a place in Ligue 1.

On the other side stands the club that finished 16th in Ligue 1. The first leg is hosted by the club from the lower division and the return by the club from the higher one. The aggregate score decides, with no extra weight for away goals. If the teams are still level at the end of the second leg, there are two extra periods of 15 minutes and, if needed, penalties. The winner plays in Ligue 1 next season, the loser in Ligue 2. In 2027 the first leg falls on 3 June and the return on 6 June.

France has seven European places for 2026/2027. It sits as association number 5 on the UEFA access list, a position set by the five season coefficients calculated at the end of 2024/2025. Three clubs go into the Champions League league phase, the champion plus the sides that finish 2nd and 3rd, while the 4th enters at the third qualifying round of the league path. The Coupe de France winner and the 5th placed club go straight into the Europa League league phase. The 6th enters the Conference League in the main path play-off.

Anyone arriving now finds a league with one dominant name. Paris Saint-Germain is the most successful club, with 14 titles, ahead of AS Saint-Étienne on 10, Olympique de Marseille on 9, AS Monaco and FC Nantes on 8 each and Olympique Lyonnais on 7. PSG has won the last five championships, from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026, and is also the reigning Champions League holder. The two promoted clubs for 2026/2027 are ESTAC Troyes and Le Mans FC. Every match is shown exclusively on Ligue 1+, the league's own platform.