The 6th richest club in the world have very little competition for the top spot in France’s top flight.
Paris Saint-Germain have just secured their seventh Ligue 1 title in eight years and their dominance of French footballs looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.
The club was taken over in 2011 by Qatar Sports Investments and Paris St. Germain have now established themselves as one of the wealthiest club’s in the world. Since 2011 the club has spent over €1 billion on player transfers which has seen them completely dominate the domestic game.
They broke the world transfer record in 2017 when they signed Brazilian star Neymar from Barcelona for an astronomical €222 million.
Since the takeover they have also broken all kinds of Ligue 1 records including most wins in a single season (30 games) and the longest unbeaten run (36 games).
In the 2017/18 season they finished the campaign 13 points clear of their closest challengers Monaco and last season did even better by finishing 16 points ahead of second placed Lille.
Kylian Mbappe also ran away with the golden boot last season. The 20-year-old French striker scored 33 Ligue 1 goals; 11 more than Lille’s Nicolas Pepe.
Ligue 1 has often been jokingly referred to as ‘the farmers league’ in recent years. This is a derogatory term used to mock the French top flight and suggests that some of the smaller clubs in the league are not professional and their players have other jobs such as farmers.
The gulf in class between Paris St. Germain and the majority of other clubs in Ligue 1 is enormous. The French league is regarded as the weakest of the top 5 leagues in Europe. The top flights in England, Spain, Germany and Italy are all seen as being much more competitive.
As well as possessing serious wealth and some of the world’s most talented players, the lack of strength in depth in Ligue 1 contributes massively to PSG’s supremacy.
Despite all of their domestic dominance, they are still missing one trophy in their cabinet. PSG are yet to win the Champions League and have exited the competition at the round of 16 stage in each of the last three seasons.
If they are to be taken seriously amongst Europe’s elite, they will have to win the tournament soon or they run the risk of no longer being able to attract the world’s top players to the club.
Regardless of their failures in Europe, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of PSG’s Ligue 1 dominance coming to an end any time soon.