Ligue 1 is the first of the top five European Leagues to announce it will reduce the division from 20 teams to 18, with similar plans afoot in Serie A.
The increasingly packed fixture list and tight finances have prompted several of Europe’s major leagues to reconsider their current structure.
Ligue 1 in France becomes the first to take formal action, as the LFP announced today that the 2022-23 season will see four teams relegated and only two promoted from Ligue 2.
That will take the total size of the tournament down from 20 clubs to 18.
Serie A is holding meetings for similar plans and presented the teams with a dossier on the financial impact of such a move.
The Italian top flight had 16 or 18 clubs for many years, until expanding to 20 in 2004-05.
That was largely due to the chaos over Catania suing against their relegation, which was tied in with other legal ramifications from Napoli and Cosenza financial irregularities.
The LFP confirms that 4 teams will be relegated from Ligue 1 next season as the league switches to 18 teams. https://t.co/7LktI8YYXa
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) October 13, 2021
This is a smart move. With all due respect to teams like SPAL, Chievo, Benevento, Frosinone, and all the teams that finished in the last two places over the last decade and a half, quite frankly there isn’t a lot of interest to see these types of teams play against Juve, Inter, Milan etc. Yes, sometimes an upset happens once in awhile, but rarely, and having these teams doesn’t make Serie A exciting (except for the fans of these teams). It’s even worse when they play against each other. You know these teams don’t play attractive football as they don’t have the players/budget to compete with established Serie A teams, and they never will. Probably the only drawback is that we might not discover future star players as much if they don’t have exposure at the highest level. We’ll wait and see what the impact is on that aspect.
Be better if germany, france, spain and italy all had their top 5 teams in a league with relegation down to tier 2, 3 and so on and then have massive bonuses for the teams from tier 2 that make it up every year, like the EPL so as to aid longevity and sustainability. Would be based on results and not “historical status”.
Italy should reduce to 18 for sure
Italy should reduce to 16