Football: French League 1 set to kick off Friday

By Muhammed Enes Calli

ANKARA (AA) - The French top-tier football division, Ligue 1’s 2019-2020 season will begin on Friday and will be concluded on May 23, 2020.

Monaco will host Olympique Lyon for the opening game of the Ligue 1 on Friday.

Olympique Lyon finished third in Ligue 1 last season and earned their ticket to participate in the UEFA Champions League this season.

Monaco did not meet expectations in the previous season and they narrowly avoided relegation by finishing the league at 17th spot.

Metz and Brest will compete as the newly promoted teams in the league, replacing the relegated Guingamp and Caen.

- PSG dominated league in recent years

Last year's champion Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), which won the French Super Cup by defeating Rennes 2-1 on Saturday, are regarded as the most favorite team of this season.

The club lifted six Ligue 1 titles in the last seven seasons, as they captured 21 of the last 25 cups since the 2013-14 season.

PSG won five league titles, five French League Cups, four French Cups and seven French Super Cups during this period.

Paris are now seeking their seventh league title in the last eight seasons as Lille, Monaco, Marseille and Lyon compete to end the Paris club's domestic domination.

- Lille gained €150M income from selling players

Last season’s runners-up Lille earned a total of €150 million ($167.92 million) from sales so far this summer as they only received €80 million ($89.56 million) from Arsenal for Ivorian forward Nicolas Pepe’s exit.

The club spent €68.6 million ($76.79 million) for 10 new players in summer transfer window including Trabzonspor's Turkish midfielder Yusuf Yazici for €16.5 million ($18.4 million).

The club had previously transferred another Turkish player Zeki Celik from Turkey’s Istanbulspor last summer.

PSG have also spent €80 million ($89.067 million) this summer.

They transferred Abdou Diallo from Borussia Dortmund for €32 million ($35.83 million) and Everton’s Idrissa Gueye for €30 million ($33.59 million) in addition to Pablo Sarabia from Sevilla for €18 million ($20.015 million).

Ander Herrera, a Mexican midfielder, joined PSG on a free transfer from Manchester United.

Olympique Lyon also spent €63 million ($70.53 million) for the club's new transfers.

- Ligue 1 is Europe's 5th most valuable league in world

Ligue 1 is the fifth most valuable football league in the world with a total of €3.2 billion ($3.58 billion) market value of the players following the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A and German Bundesliga.

Saint-Etienne are still the all-time winners of the Ligue 1 with 10 titles, besting Olympique Marseille 9 titles and Nantes, Monaco, PSG’s 8 each.

- First week fixtures in Ligue 1:

Friday:

Monaco v Olympique Lyon

Saturday:

Olympique Marseille v Reims

Angers v Bordeaux

Brest v Toulouse

Dijon v Saint-Etienne

Montpellier v Rennes

Nice v Amiens

Sunday:

Lille v Nantes

Strasbourg v Metz

Paris Saint-Germain v Nimes