Historical Ranking of French football clubs
Historical Ranking: FRANCE
[Last updated: end of 2006-07 season]
| Rank | Club | Points |
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Olympique Marseille Saint-Etienne AS Monaco Nantes Olympique Lyonnais Bordeuax OCG Nice Lille OSC Sochaux Racing Club de Strasbourg Stade de Reims Paris-Saint-Germain Rennes Lens Metz Toulouse Nimes Olympique Nancy Auxerre Le Havre |
291 276 222 204 201 198 188 173 169 166 162 147 143 141 141 110 103 102 100 95 |
| Rank | Second Tier Clubs | Points |
| 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 |
Valenciennes Cannes Sète Angers Bastia Sedan Montpellier Troyes Laval Caen Grenoble Gueugnon Brest Lorient Châteauroux Guingamp Amiens Martigues AC Ajaccio Le Mans |
93 90 87 86 80 67 58 53 50 46 45 44 40 36 35 35 33 33 32 32 |
| Rank | Third Tier Clubs | Points |
| 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 |
Tours Niort Boulogne-sur-Mer Louhans-Cuiseaux Beauvais Istres Paris FC Creteil Lusitanos Arles Cherbourg Dijon Calais Clermont Foot Rodez Libourne/St-Seurin Pau Romorantin Sannois-St-Gratien Vannes Villemomble |
29 25 24 18 17 16 14 9 7 7 7 6 6 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 |
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The About a Ball ranking is a progressive points scoring system devised our statisticians to grade each league club according to their historical achievements since the beginning of organised football in this country. We felt the need for such a ranking after hearing numerous lower division chairmen claiming that their club is one of the biggest in the country and should rightfully be in the top division. However, there are only 20 places in Ligue 1 and therefore only 20 clubs deserve to occupy them, so we decided to find out which clubs really are sleeping giants and which are currently flying well above their historical status.
NOTE: National championships have been contested in France since 1894 but were originally very regional in nature and included only a handful of teams. This ranking takes into account league results since the first proper league in 1932/33 (1933/34 for Division 2). The Coupe de France dates from 1918.
How it works
Points awarded as follows:
| Champions Cup Win | +15 |
| Other European Trophy Win | +10 |
| League Championship | +10 |
| FA Cup Win | +6 |
| League Cup Win | +3 |
| Second Level Division Win | +3 |
| Lower Division Win | +1 |
| Season in top division | +2 |
| Season in 2nd division | +1 |
| Bonuses: Super Cup; Club Cup; Double | +3 |
Notes: The scores include any points scored by a club under a former name. In cases where clubs have merged or re-formed, the new club has been awarded the points accumulated by its previous incarnations wherever there is a continuation or substantial link between the old and new clubs. This proved particularly difficult in France because there have been numerous mergers, splits, name changes and reformations over the years. We will continue to investigate the history of several clubs and they may be awarded/deducted points in the future if we find evidence that has previously been overlooked.
Criticisms and Improvements
There is no account taken of when the points were scored, so a team (e.g. Stade de Reims) could have scored a large portion of their points a long time ago in a very different era. The teams did not all join the league at the same time so founder members have had a much longer period of time over which to accumulate points than "new" clubs such as PSG or Auxerre. The system takes account only of on the pitch successes and not off the pitch factors such as attendance and annual budget which could indicate a big club. The About a Ball ranking could be improved (and also complicated) by including points for average attendances and annual budget/profit, dividing points totals by the number of years clubs have been in the league, or by giving less weight to points scored a long time ago. However, we are satisfied that our ranking shows the relative playing merits of the 60 league clubs based on historical success and identifies clubs currently under or over achieving.
Conclusions
Lyon have made great progress up the table in recent years but they are still only fifth in the all-time ranking despite their recent dominance. It's quite tight at the top, with Marseille and Saint Etienne enjoying a comfortable lead over Monaco in third and Nantes in fourth. However, it's now six full seasons since any of the historical top four have won either of the major trophies and Nantes have hit the biggest slump culminating in their relegation to Ligue 2. They are likely to be overtaken by Lyon in the near future.
There is a very high correlation between the historical top twenty clubs and the current top-flight teams, with 16 appearing in both lists and Valenciennes just outside in 21st place. Le Mans are the 'smallest' top flight club at the moment, as their record places them 40th overall. Stade de Reims are the second biggest club outside the top division (behind Nantes) as they belong in 11th place and are currently in Ligue 2. Nimes Olympique are the only club that has fallen two divisions below their top-flight status.
There are of course several other clubs that have scored points under this system over the years but are no longer in the three nationwide divisions. Some of them, such as Racing Club de France, Rouen, Red Star and Alès have been quite successful and would rank highly. We will look at ways to include them in future updates.
It is strictly forbidden to copy or reproduce these tables without permission. Any breach of copyright may lead to prosecution. The tables will be updated annually and any feedback on the results/corrections to data is welcome.
aboutaball.com 2007
