By Bill Turianski on 22 February 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Sources…
Seasons in French 1st Division:
-Historical Review Ligue 1 (pari-et-gagne.com/[Bilan historique Ligue 1].
-Total Seasons Ligue 1 (ligue1.com/bilanClubs).
-France – Final Placings [all-time 1st division, 1932/33 to 2012/13] (rsssf.com).
-Classement du championnat de France de football toutes saisons confondues (fr.wikipedia.org).
-Ligue 1/Ewige Tabelle (de.wikipedia.org).
-Ligue 1/Members for 2018-19 (en.wikipedia.org).
French titles (Professional Era):
-List of French football champions/Performance by club in Professional era (en.wikipedia.org).
-Links to my other All-time 1st division charts [2018-19 season]
-England: All-time Football League/Premier League (since 1880-81).
-Italy: All-time Serie A (since 1929-30.
-Germany: All-time Bundesliga (since 1963-64).
-Spain: All-time Ligue 1 (since 1932-33).
…
- This chart is for All-time French 1st division: total seasons by club.
{Click on image at the top of this post.}
Going from left to right on the chart, here is what is listed on the chart…
1). Name of club.
2). Level (aka division) that the club is in, currently [2018-19].
3). Crest & colours [home colours from 2018-19].
4). Seasons in French 1st Division (Ligue 1): 81 seasons (1932-33 to 1938-39; 1945-46 to 2018-19).
5). Consecutive seasons in the 1st division [current/2018-19] – OR – Last season that the club was previously in the 1st division.
6). Ligue 1 clubs for 2018-19 are shown with crest and small home kit illustration [charcoal-grey column down the middle of the chart].
7). Full name of club.
8). French professional titles: Ligue 1 titles [80 seasons] (1933-2018).
The histories of many French 1st division clubs are rather convoluted, and it is disputed whether some clubs were re-formed with the original club’s history intact – or not. So the list here has 75 clubs, and not 77 clubs, because of Montpellier and Troyes. On the list here, Montpellier HSC’s league history (37 seasons in 1st division) includes the league history of SO Montpellier (1919-70/10 seasons in 1st division); and ESTAC Troyes’ league history (17 seasons in 1st division) includes the league history of AS Troyes (1900-67/3 seasons in 1st division). The sources I used that stick to this interpretation are this: {Historical Review Ligue 1 (pari-et-gagne.com)}, and this: {Ligue 1/Ewige Tabelle [Montpellier SO/HSC: #19/37 seasons; Troyes AS/ES: #33/17 seasons (de.wikipedia.org)]}. Worldfootball.net also considers Montpellier HSC as the same club as in the past {Montpellier HSC » Historical results}, ditto Troyes {ESTAC Troyes » Historical results}. You can find other examples, like this Danish site’s pages on Montpellier [est. 1919], and Troyes [est. 1900] {foot-dk}. French wikipedia (as well as German, English and Italian wikipedia) say Montpellier HSC was est. 1919, but the Spanish wikipedia disagrees, and says Montpellier HSC was est. 1974. French and English wikipedia say ESTAC Troyes was est. 1986, but German and Italian wikipedia both disagree, and say ESTAC Troyes was est. 1900. Soccerway.com says Montpellier HSC was established in 1974, and ESTAC Troyes was established in 1986. Rsssf.com says both Montpellier’s and Troyes’ 1st division clubs are not the same {rsssf.com/tablesf/[france]}.
To add to the confusion, en.wikipedia and fr.wikipedia both say that the present-day Montpellier HSC was founded in 1919, and were a founding member of the French 1st division in 1932 {see this: Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (fr.wikipedia.org)}. But when it comes to tabulating how many seasons Montpellier HSC has played in the 1st division, it is claimed that SO Montpellier’s 10 seasons in the 1st division don’t count towards Montpellier HSC’s total 1st division seasons. This site (thefinalball.com) does the same thing…go to the 1932-33 Ligue 1 page there, {here}, click on ‘Montpellier’ there, and you are re-directed to the Montpellier page which says ‘est. 1974′. That is a contradiction. You can’t have it both ways…if the current Montpellier is considered a founding member of Ligue 1, than it is the same club as the one that existed in 1932. Here is a screenshot that shows that en.wikipedia considers Montpellier HSC to be a founding member of Ligue 1 {ligue-1_founders_montpellier-hsc_listed-as-a-founding-club_.gif}, thus effectively admitting that Montpellier HSC, despite re-births and mergers throughout the years, is the same club as SO Montpellier. Ditto fr.wikipedia.org, which states, in the second sentence on the page of Montpellier HSC, ‘les Montpelliérains participent à la première édition du championnat national professionnel en 1932 en compagnie de dix-neuf autres clubs pionniers’.
If you are curious about other points of contention in Ligue 1 club league history, you can see what the web-master at Pari-et-Gagne.com has to say, at the foot of the Seasons in the French 1st Division list there {here: pari-et-gagne.com/bilan}. I agreed with all the points made there, except with respect to Lyon OU, who played one season of French 1st division football in 1945-46. Lyon OU still exists as a sports club, albeit as a 1st-division rugby union club. So how could the present-day Olympique Lyonnais [Lyon] inherit the Ligue 1 league history of Lyon OU, since Lyon OU still exists? They’re just playing with a different shaped ball now.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Historical Review Ligue 1 (pari-et-gagne.com/[Bilan historique Ligue 1].
-Total Seasons Ligue 1 (ligue1.com/bilanClubs).
-France – Final Placings [all-time 1st division, 1932/33 to 2012/13] (rsssf.com).
-Classement du championnat de France de football toutes saisons confondues (fr.wikipedia.org).
-Ligue 1/Ewige Tabelle (de.wikipedia.org).
-Ligue 1/Members for 2018-19 (en.wikipedia.org).
French titles (Professional Era):
-List of French football champions/Performance by club in Professional era (en.wikipedia.org).
-Small kit illustrations of 2018-19 Ligue Un teams from each club’s page at en.wikipedia.org.
