The German Bundesliga and the French Ligue 1 are one of the top five European leagues across the world. But they are being referred to as farmers league for some reason. That’s what the article will give more enlightenment on.
It has been noted that Bayern Munich and PSG have been dominating their domestic league in consecutive fashions. This happens despite starting slowly; they still ended up catching up and claiming the title.
Lyon had won the French Ligue one for instance for seven consecutive seasons in the 2000s before the PSG millionaires came, which changes the tide towards the Paris club.
The same could be said of the Bavarian club except for the tike that Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund that won it at separate seasons. Apart from that, the Bavarian giant has been dominant. Likewise PSG, Bayern swept all the domestic trophies in front of them last season and added the Champions League to their kitty as the icing on the cake.
Bayern had already began the new season as German and UEFA Super Cup winners after defeating Sevilla and Borussi Dortmund respectively. It seems this dominace won’t be ending soon.
Why are Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga called Farmers league?
They are being called farmers league as a kind of mockery because the top-tier has been accused of being a one-horse race with a single top side dominating the leagues at any given time.
This could also be said of the Italian Serie A that has seen Juventus won the title for the 9th straight time. But the fact remains that the Serie A titles have been shared among many clubs before Juve became consecutive winners. Even last season, they struggled to win it. Such was a direct message that cost Maurizio Sarri his job despite winning his first Serie A title.
Hardly has there been a clean sweep of the domestic titles in the Serie A in season. This makes it more competitive than the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
But it has been a regular occurrence in both leagues over the years. Bayern and PSG have been flying away with the domestic titles.
In one word, fans accuse both leagues of being a ‘farmers league’. Moreover, of the five top league, Ligue 1 is generally considered as least elite of the competitions. Although they have raised their profile and status in recent years what with their access to riches and star players in Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani.
Fans have further stated that Ligue 1 players aren’t as skilled or at the level of other footballers in the other top five European leagues.
For instance, in the late 1980s, Marseille were the reigning club, winning five straight French league titles, and Lyon followed in a similar fashion when they won seven consecutive Ligue 1 championships in the early 2000s.
Since the 2012-13 season, PSG have now become the frontrunners in the league by a mile except for one season in 2016-17 where Monaco pipped them to the title. Since then, they continued their dominance. They look to be dominators of France for the foreseeable future with their financial backing and talented stars.
Ligue 1 and Bundesliga called the feeder Leagues
Although the quality of the German League lookss to be a bit up, the clubs have been seen as a feeder league except for Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and PSG.
For instance, Ligue 1 clubs have lost the likes of Eden Hazard, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante, Anthony Martial, Alexandre Lacazette to English clubs. This is down to their academies that have been producing huge talents.
However, seeing PSG performing below par in the Champions League except for last season that they reached the final supports the argument. before that feat. Their highest stop in the European competition has been the quarter-final of the competition, having been knocked out at the last-16 stage three times in a row between 2017 and 2019.
Despite having Neymar in their line up, PSG crashed out at the last 16 twice in as many years – first to Real Madrid and then Man United.
However, 2019 was a great year for the Paris club and Lyon as two French clubs got into the last four for the first time since 201.
Moreover, many Ligue 1 teams have been described as feeder clubs because they develop and grow their players only to sell them for a large sum of money to a rival team when they are at their peak.
This also occurred in England when Southampton, after building a reputation for being an unofficial ‘feeder club’ for Liverpool, sold the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Nathaniel Clyne, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana to the Reds in the past few seasons alone.
There was a time that Arsenal seemed to have been a feeder club for clubs like Manchester City and Barcelona. They sold Thierry Henry, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Alexander Hleb, Cesc Fabregas, and Alex Song to the Catalan giants while they were at their peak.
Arsenal further in the early 2010s, sold Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, and Bacary Sagna to Man City.
Bayern has been poaching rival talents for a long time. They succeeded in luring Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels, and Mario Gotze in previous years from Dortmund.
Apart from Bayern, many Bundesliga clubs have been feeder clubs to top teams. For instance, the league lost Timo Werner and Kai Havertz last summer to Chelsea from Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen respectively.
