Teams
Lyon (W)
PSG (W)
Montpellier (W)
Guingamp (W)
Paris FC (W)
FC Fleury 91 (W)
ASJ Soyaux Women
Dijon (W)
Bordeaux Women
St Etienne (W)
Reims (W)
Rodez AF (W)
Le Havre (W)
Marseille (W)
ASPTT Albi Women
Metz (W)
Issy-les-Moulineaux Women
Lille (W)
Juvisy Essonne Women
Strasbourg (W)
Nantes (W)
Arras Women
Lens (W)
Wikipedia - Première Ligue
The Première Ligue (French: [pʁəmjɛʁ liɡ]), officially known as Arkema Première Ligue for sponsorship reasons, is a professional women's association football league at the highest level of the French football league system, and is run by the Ligue féminine de football professionnel (LFFP). Its annual competition features twelve teams playing two series of round-robin matches from September to June, to determine the four participants of a single-elimination tournament. The winners of the tournament are crowned champions of France, and contest the Trophée des Championnes match the following season. At the end of each season, the top three teams qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League, while the two bottom teams are relegated to the Seconde Ligue.
The "Première Ligue" is the latest iteration of a competition founded in 1975 by the French Football Federation (FFF) as the amateur Division 1 Féminine. Professionalism was introduced for the first time in the 2009–10 season. The competition was ranked the best women's league in Europe according to UEFA 2019–20 women's association club coefficients. OL Lyonnes have won the league the most times (18), and also hold the record for consecutive wins (14).
History
The first women's association football league in France was founded in 1919 by the Fédération des Sociétés Féminines Sportives de France (FSFSF), a women's football organization in France that was led by women's football pioneer Alice Milliat. The league lasted for twelve seasons before disbanding due to the prohibition of women's football. In this context, women replaced the men who left for the war in the industries and on the farms, in addition, they invested in the sport field, thus in soccer too.
The very first match of the French women's championship took place on the morning of March 23, 1919, at the Brancion stadium in Paris between "Fémina Sport" and "En Avant". Fémina Sport would have won 2-0[1],[2], with a score of 3-1 also being mentioned[3]. The first two editions of the championship only involved Parisian teams. In April 1933, football was officially removed from sports organized by the FSFSF, due to the growing disinterest of women in the sport, which was subject to strong criticism following this detachment. The Paris Women's Football League, created in 1933, took over and on November 26, 1933, organized a Paris women's championship with ten clubs that lasted until 1937. In 1975, women's football was officially re-instated and a new league, the Division 1 Féminine, was established by the governing body of football in France, the French Football Federation. Professionalism was introduced in 2009–10 season and female football players in France began signing professional contracts with their clubs at the same season, the most notable of which is Olympique Lyonnais (now known as OL Lyonnes).
In July 2022, it was announced that the Division 1 Féminine would feature in the FIFA 23 video game.
Before the beginning of the 2024–25 season, the league's name changed from Division 1 to Première Ligue.