The top-tier of French football has been overtaken by the Dutch league over the past five years. (Credit: AFP)
The French top flight was overtaken by the Eredivisie, following poor show of form by French clubs in European tournaments in recent years
Following poor displays from French teams in both of UEFA’s major competitions, Ligue 1, the French top flight of football, was recently not listed among the top five leagues in the world.
The latest UEFA League rankings have seen the Netherlands overtake France, based on the performances of clubs in European competition over the last five seasons. So, France now sits in sixth place below the Dutch.
Fans all over have claimed that the departure of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi led to the lowering of standards across the league. But, the truth is that these rankings are based on French teams’ performances across UEFA’s major European competitions.
Ligue 1 has dropped out of Europe’s top 5 leagues, with France losing its place to the Netherlands in UEFA’s ranking at the start of this seasonThe calculation is determined by the sum of each country’s European performance over the last 5 years pic.twitter.com/Np0M2RhKcb
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 4, 2023
Take, for instance, last season. Paris-Saint Germain, the French champions themselves, crashed out of the UEFA Champions League, following a humiliating defeat to Bayern Munich in the round-of-16.
Meanwhile, other French clubs across European competitions also underperformed. Marseille finished bottom of their Champions League group, thereby eliminating themselves from even entering the Europa League knockout stages. Others such as Monaco, Rennes, and Nantes all crashed out in the first round of the knockout stages in the Europa League.
Nice were the only French team to make it out of a knockout stage in a European league, only to succumb to Swiss side Basel in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Conference League.
The failure of French clubs to capitalize and achieve success in European competitions has been the driving force behind their deteriorating ranking.
On the other hand, the successes of Dutch clubs in Europe over the past five years have boosted the nation’s coefficient ranking tremendously.
The deep runs made in European competitions, such as Feyenoord’s run to the Europa Conference League final in 2022, AS Alkmaar’s run to the semi-finals of the same competition this past season, and the unforgettable run made by Ajax to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2019, have all contributed to the consistent growth of the Eredivisie in the UEFA coefficient rankings.
