“The message from the Tribune Ouest, home of the self-styled Ultra Boys 90, is loud and clear. Half an hour into Racing Strasbourg’s home game against OGC Nice, a huge banner is unfurled: ‘Non a la multipropriete”’(‘No to multi-ownership’). One of the Ultra Boys, Strasbourg’s most vocal supporters, grabs a megaphone and issues an impassioned diatribe against multi-club ownership — his message reverberating all over the Stade de la Meinau as the match is going on. …”
The Athletic (Video)

Marseille’s supporters light flares at the Stade Vélodrome.
“When Fabio Grosso’s bloodied face was plastered across the front page of L’Équipe on 30 October – ‘Disgust and shame,’ the headline read – there was already a prevailing sense that the spate of violent incidents in French football was plumbing new depths. Lyon’s Italian coach was injured as the team bus was pelted on its arrival at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille for a high-stakes Olympico showdown. To make matters worse, Nazi salutes and racist chanting were seen and heard from a small minority of the Lyon fans who were already inside the stadium. The match was postponed and played without away fans more than a month later. …”
Guardian

“… The map shows the 18 clubs in the current season of the French Ligue 1 [2022-23]. Note: for 2023-24, Ligue 1 has contracted to 18 teams. In June 2021, the LFP voted to contract Ligue 1 back to 18 clubs, for the 2023–24 season, by relegating 4 and promoting 2 from Ligue 2. The reason for this was two-fold…fewer matches, and more money to go round (from television deals) {see this}. The lighter domestic schedule is hoped to help French teams to be better rested, and thus compete better in UEFA competitions, especially as the Champions League Group Stage will be expanded from 6 to 8 games in 2024. …”
billsportsmaps
W – 2023–24 Ligue 1

Marseille were beaten 4-0 by PSG on Sunday but that has not been their biggest disaster in the last week.
“A coach’s life is never simple at the Vélodrome. After just seven games in charge, Marcelino resigned as Marseille manager last week in response to what he called ‘intimidation, threats, insults and slander’. The Spaniard became the fourth Marseille coach to resign in less than three years and he is not the first to do so under duress from the club’s volatile fanbase. Marseille, so often their own worst enemies, routinely implode and start again. As their 4-0 thrashing to PSG on Sunday night underlines, this latest farce will be difficult to overcome. …”
Guardian

“Monaco winning their first two matches of the season is not a total surprise. But their performances in the 4-2 victory against Clermont on the opening weekend and their 3-0 win against Strasbourg on Sunday suggest their reboot is coming together apace, especially given that other putative European contenders have stumbled out of the blocks. …”
Guardian

Le Havre
“The 2022–23 Ligue 1, also known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, was the 85th season of the Ligue 1, France’s premier football competition. It began on 5 August 2022 and concluded on 3 June 2023. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup began on 20 November, the last round before the break was held on 12–13 November. The league subsequently resumed on 27 December.  … Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions, and they won a record-breaking eleventh title with one match to spare, following a 1–1 draw against Strasbourg on 27 May. …”
W – Ligue 1

“The Portuguese league, for its entirety, has been dominated by three teams, Porto, Benfica, and Sporting CP. In fact, their grasp on the league has been so strong that in its 89-year history, only two teams (Belenenses in 1945-46 and Boavista in 2000-01) have won the league apart from the three aforementioned teams. And this is why these three teams generated the best talent in football. …”
Foot the Ball
W – Manuel Ugarte

“The job is done. It has proven to be more stressful than anticipated but what many regarded as a foregone conclusion has belatedly been reached: Paris Saint-Germain are the champions of France for a record 11th time, courtesy of a rather underwhelming 1-1 draw away to Strasbourg. This is a landmark moment. French football has become accustomed to PSG title triumphs but this latest success puts that dominance on a new footing. …”
The Athletic

“Neither of PSG’s two most recent marquee signings has worked out as hoped. Both could even be classed as outright mistakes in hindsight. However, as one’s Parisian journey looks set to end in acrimony, the other may yet deserve a second chance. As PSG beat Ajaccio 5-0 on Saturday to move within one win of another underwhelming league title, hopes of revolution again returned to the Parc des Princes. …”
Guardian

“Kylian Mbappe enjoys a unique status in the French game. In the 41st minute of Paris Saint-Germain’s trip to Angers on Friday, they won a corner. By that point, Mbappe had scored twice and Angers were staring at defeat, and probable confirmation of their relegation in the days to follow. Mbappe walked over to take the set piece, in between the Colombier and Jean Bouin stands, right in front of the home supporters. These were not Angers’ most vocal ultras, it must be said. But the 24-year-old raised his arms, as if to encourage the crowd to generate some noise. They did. And they cheered him. …”
The Athletic

“From the outside, it appeared to be just an ordinary marketing video sent to Paris Saint-Germain season ticket holders to try to coax them into a renewal. But then, on Thursday, an Instagram story appeared on Kylian Mbappe’s account, expressing to his 102 million followers that he was unhappy about the whole thing. … This was not the first time Mbappe has used social media to vent his frustrations. Last October, after a 0-0 Ligue 1 draw with Reims, Mbappe dropped a subtle message on an Instagram story about his perceived unhappiness at being played as a central striker. …”
The Athletic

“Lionel Messi in Paris. Will there be another season? That is one of the most important plotlines at play at the Parc des Princes right now and, judging by this week’s latest instalment of Parisian drama, a conclusion is still some way off. On Friday, Jorge Messi, the Argentinian forward’s father, posted a dramatic message on his Instagram story. It read: ‘Danger — FAKE NEWS!!!!’, followed by emojis of an exclamation mark, a radioactive symbol and a skull. …”
The Athletic (Video)

“Football clubs are often indecisive when the stakes are high. Too often they dither over transfers, dropping players who have lost form, or dismissing managers. The dangers of this approach has been on show in Ligue 1 this season, where the relegation of four clubs rather than the usual three has made the need for success even more acute than usual. Ligue 2 is a particularly difficult division to bounce back from, as St-Étienne are discovering. Having been relegated from the top flight last season, they are now 13th in the second tier. …”
Guardian

“When PSG were trailing Lille 3-2 with 15 minutes to play, coach Christophe Galtier was joined on the touchline at the Parc des Princes. Famed sporting director Luis Campos, who engineered Lille and Monaco’s recent title-winning squads, left his usual seat in the stands to bark orders and complain about decisions. Although known to be fiercely opinionated, Campos’ ire spilling over in such a public fashion is unprecedented. After three consecutive defeats in three competitions last week, pressure is growing on Galtier. Campos, it seems, feels it too. …”
Guardian

“‘Believe in yourselves. We are right. You are right. The coaching staff are right,’ said an impassioned Damien Comolli. The former Liverpool and Tottenham director, now Toulouse president, was trying to inspire a dejected dressing room as the players slumped in their seats after a 6-1 rout by Marseille at the end of December. Comolli’s faith has proven well-placed. The team responded by going on a five-game unbeaten run that only ended this weekend, when they were narrowly defeated 2-1 by PSG in Paris. Toulouse, one of the more avant garde teams in Ligue 1, keep exceeding expectations. …”
Guardian

Le Puy players celebrate after their victory over Nice in the Coupe de France.
“There are moments in a season that can provoke profound self-reflection in a club. Nice’s shock 1-0 defeat to Le Puy-en-Velay Foot 43 Auvergne in the round of 64 of the Coupe de France represents one of those moments, laying bare the incoherence of Ineos’ project. Flashback to last May and Nice, under the stewardship of now-PSG manager Christophe Galtier, were playing in the Coupe de France final against Nantes. …”
Guardian

Will Still / Reims
“Stade de Reims’ defeat to Marseille on the opening day of the season is looking increasingly far away these days and not just because of the World Cup break. Reims’ 3-1 win over Rennes on Thursday night was their eighth match in a row without defeat, a run that has coincided with the installation of Will Still as their manager. Some of the games in that run have been against the league’s lesser lights – and Reims were not majorly disrupted by the World Cup, with only Junya Ito playing in Qatar – but the evidence of the young manager’s positive influence continues apace. …”
Guardian