Before the 2023/2024 season, the French Ligue 1 consisted of 20 teams like the other top football leagues in Europe except for the German Bundesliga. During those times three teams get the chance to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Two get an automatic qualification and the third-placed team would have to go through the qualifying round.
Fourth and fifth-placed teams qualify for the Europa League. However, if a team outside the top five spots wins the Coupe de France, the fifth-placed team is sent to the UEFA Europa Conference League. And as a result, the team in sixth cannot qualify for any of the European competitions.
Another important part of the Ligue 1 standings before the 2023/2024 season was the 18th to 20th position on the log. The teams in 19th and 20th would relegate to Ligue 2 once the league ends, but the team in 18th gets a chance at redemption in the relegation playoff, a two-legged matchup. The best team after the two legs will play in the following season’s Ligue 1 competition.
From the 2023/2024 season, the team has been reduced to 18 teams. To achieve that, four teams had to relegate from the league with no chance of a playoff. In addition to four teams dropping to the second division, only two teams qualified from Ligue 2 to Ligue. As a result, there are lesser teams and matchups in a standard Ligue 1 season from the 2023/2024 season.
However, the UEFA spots for qualification remain the same, except that there are now only five spots available for teams to pick up. The top two get automatic qualifications to the UEFA Champions League. The team in the third position plays in the preliminary qualification stage. Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth-placed team gets Europa League and Conference League, respectively.
Importance of Standings for Bettors
If you know how to bet on Ligue 1, you’ll understand the importance of looking at the standings before you make your Ligue 1 picks. One of the reasons for this is that you’ll have more information about the teams and their current performance level for the past few games. It also shows who is the better team in a particular tie or if they’re closely matched.
As a result, you want to look at their stats on the table. For instance, what you should focus on includes points accumulated in the last five games, goals scored, goals conceded, and their head-to-head against the opponent they are going up against in the next matchup. With that, you know if the team is in a good position to win the match or at least get a draw.
You can also use the current standings to improve your predictions whenever you want to bet on other markets. For instance, if you want to bet on the goals market, you can look at the goals stat for both teams and how they’ve been fairing going forward and defensively.
If both teams score plenty and concede plenty, there’s a good chance the game will be a high-scoring match. Otherwise, you might want to go for the low-scoring option because they are more likely to play defensively, especially if one is a clear underdog and the other is the favorite to win.
How Ligue 1 Season Works
A typical Ligue 1 season is pretty straightforward. For each matchup, there are three maximum points each team can take. It is given to the team that can score the most goals before the end of the 90 minutes plus additional time. However, if both teams have the same number of goals scored after the final whistle they get a point apiece.
In that case, each team is after getting as many maximum points as possible. The points are accumulated, and the team with the most points at the end of the season would win the league. Others follow based on the points they’ve gathered since the start of the season. Therefore, the spots are filled accordingly.
However, whenever teams are tied on points, there are other ways they’re ranked on the table. The first is through goals difference. After that, we have goals scored and then, goals conceded. Finally, the teams are separated based on their head-to-head in that season. In this case, it is about which team scored the most goals over both legs.
If you love sports and want more sports betting information follow us as @InsidersBetDig on Twitter and sign up to our mailing list for free betting picks. You can find the standings for Ligue 1 teams for each season on various soccer websites or apps that cover European leagues. Player stats have nothing to do with the team’s position on the league table. However, it can improve the team’s result for each matchup and increase their points tally. Yes, the current position affects the teams’ odds because the standings is based on performance and form, which are part of the metrics used in determining the odds.