Release | GFFN Ligue 1 Guide 25/26 | OneFootball

Download your 74-page GFFN Guide to the 2025/26 Ligue 1 season HERE

Paris Saint-Germain’s rivals approach this season a little deflated. They already knew that they were competing with comfortably the best team in France and one that, financially speaking, were on a superior plane. Les Parisiens’ UEFA Champions League triumph has only hammered home the disparities and reinforced their sense of untouchability. They are no longer just the best team in France, or the best team in Europe, but the world; their defeat to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final does not alter that perception and nor should it.

PSG’s rivals no longer talk about breaching the vast chasm that separates the reigning Ligue 1 champions from the chasing pack. Olympique de Marseille speak of competing “with PSG better”, but not surpassing them, despite once again going big in the transfer window. AS Monaco, meanwhile, have set out their stall. “We want to be back in second in Ligue 1,” said the club’s CEO Thiago Scuro. These clubs, the two closest to Les Parisiens in what it feels is becoming an increasingly tiered league, aren’t lacking in ambition; their analysis is one that simply recognises the state of French football and their capacity within the current context, to dethrone a behemoth, whose talent on the pitch and financial means off of it cannot be matched.

Olympique Lyonnais’ ability to make inroads has been hampered by a period of austerity imposed by new president, Michelle Kang. OL are perhaps lucky to be in Ligue 1 at all, having seen their administrative relegation to Ligue 2 ultimately overturned. But their survival comes at a cost, and their sporting ambitions have been downgraded, even if Paulo Fonseca has said that he is pleasantly surprised by Lyon’s transfer window thus far.

Lille aren’t in an overwhelmingly strong financial position either, and so have not had funds to replace the big-name departees, Jonathan David, Angel Gomes, Lucas Chevalier, and Bafodé Diakité. Edon Zhegrova could also depart before the end of the transfer window, and so they approach the upcoming Ligue 1 season in a weaker position than they concluded the last. OGC Nice too lack funds to replenish their stock and have lost Marcin Bulka and Evann Guessand over the summer. Franck Haise overperformed with his squad last season, and he will have to do so again.

PSG haven’t been overactive in the window, even if their two arrivals, Chevalier and Illia Zabarnyi, are also two of the most expensive bits of business in Ligue 1 this summer. But regardless, many of their rivals are not in a position to close the gap. Nor is the prospect of a new challenger, at least for now. Paris FC will be a team to follow closely this year. Promoted to Ligue 1, they play the role of noisy neighbours. Even if their short-term objective will simply be to survive in Ligue 1, they have the funds, in the extremely moneyed Arnault family, and the nous, through the Red Bull partnership, to cause a stir in French football. Their ability to do that will be known only in the long term, but in the meantime, PSG can rest easy. A fifth-consecutive Ligue 1 title beckons for Luis Enrique’s side.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle