France Ligue 1

The top division of French football, founded as a professional national championship in 1932 and known as Division 1 until 2002. The first season was played in two groups of ten with a play-off final; the league settled at sixteen clubs in 1934, was suspended between 1939 and 1945 for the war, and has run at eighteen or twenty clubs since. It has carried the name Ligue 1 since the 2002-03 season, with sponsor prefixes that are not part of the competition name.