50 free Ligue 1 trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Ligue 1 trivia for French football fans, fantasy managers and anyone who can name more than one club besides Paris Saint-Germain. The quiz opens with the origins: professionalism voted in by the FFF in 1930, the inaugural 1932-33 'National' season, the disqualified Antibes side, Olympique Lillois lifting the first title, and the wartime championships that the league does not recognise. Then it moves through the dynasties: Stade de Reims and Just Fontaine, the Saint-Étienne of the 1960s and 70s, Bordeaux under Aimé Jacquet, Bernard Tapie's Marseille winning Europe in 1993 and being relegated for match-fixing, Lyon's seven straight titles, four different champions in four years, and PSG's Qatar Sports Investments era with Ibrahimović, Neymar and Mbappé. Later rounds cover the records of Delio Onnis, Josip Skoblar and Mickaël Landreau, the Hexagoal trophy, the Parc des Princes and Stade Vélodrome, the DNCG, sponsorship names from Orange to McDonald's, and the shrink to 18 clubs in 2023. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League and French football quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ligue 1 was reduced to how many clubs from the 2023-24 season?
18
Four clubs went down and only two came up at the end of 2022-23 to make the cut from 20.
Q 02Under what name was the league inaugurated on 11 September 1932?
National
It became Division 1 after a single season and Ligue 1 in 2002.
Q 03In which year did Division 1 become Ligue 1?
2002
The first sponsor name, Ligue 1 Orange, ran from 2002 to 2008.
Q 04Which body administers France's top division?
Ligue de Football Professionnel
The LFP also runs Ligue 2 and, until its abolition, the Coupe de la Ligue.
Q 05In which year did the French Football Federation vote 128-20 to adopt professionalism?
1930
Georges Bayrou, Emmanuel Gambardella and Gabriel Hanot are credited as its founders.
Q 06How many professional players did a club need to recruit to join the new league in 1932?
At least eight
Clubs also had to show past results and enough revenue to balance the books.
Q 07Which club won the first professional championship in 1933?
Olympique Lillois
They beat Cannes 4-3 in a final after Group B winners Antibes were disqualified over bribery suspicions.
Q 08Which club was disqualified from the first final in 1933 on suspicion of bribery?
Antibes
Runners-up Cannes took their place and lost 4-3.
Q 09Which was the first club to win the French title twice, in the pre-war years?
Sochaux
The pre-war period was wide open, with several different champions.
Q 10What is the official status of the 'war championships' played under Vichy from 1939 to 1945?
Not recognised at all
Professionalism was abolished and clubs played in Zone Sud and Zone Nord regional leagues.
Q 11Which club dominated the 1950s and reached two European Cup finals?
Stade de Reims
They lost both finals to Real Madrid, in 1956 and 1959.
Q 12Which two clubs dominated French football from the 1960s to the early 1980s?
Saint-Étienne and Nantes
Saint-Étienne became the first club to reach ten titles.
Q 13Which manager made Bordeaux the main force of the mid-to-late 1980s?
Aimé Jacquet
He went on to win the 1998 World Cup with France.
Q 14Which Ballon d'Or-winning striker led the Marseille side that won four straight titles from 1988-89?
Q 21Which three founding members of the league were still in Ligue 1 at the start of 2025-26?
Marseille, Nice and Rennes
Marseille also hold the record for most seasons in the top flight.
Q 22Which club went a record 32 league matches unbeaten and lost just once in 1994-95?
Nantes
They also went 92 home games without defeat between 1976 and 1981.
Q 23Which club's presence makes Ligue 1 a cross-border competition?
Monaco
The club plays at the Stade Louis II in the principality.
Who is Ligue 1's all-time top scorer with 299 goals?
Jean-Pierre Papin
Chris Waddle and Rudi Völler played alongside him; the club won the Champions League in 1993.
Q 15Which businessman became Marseille president in 1986 and built the side that won Europe in 1993?
Bernard Tapie
He signed Papin, Waddle, Cantona, Deschamps and Desailly and hired Franz Beckenbauer as coach.
Q 16The 1993 match-fixing scandal that cost Marseille their title involved which opponent?
Valenciennes
Marseille were relegated to the second division in 1994 and stayed there two seasons.
Q 17Which club won seven consecutive titles from 2002 to 2008?
Lyon
It was an unprecedented run; the club was owned by Jean-Michel Aulas from 1987 to 2022.
Q 18Which club won the 2011-12 title, the last of four different champions in four seasons?
Montpellier
Bordeaux, Marseille and Lille had taken the three previous titles.
Q 19Which investor group took over the Paris club in 2012?
Qatar Sports Investments
The takeover funded Ibrahimović, Thiago Silva, Neymar, Mbappé and Messi.
Q 20Which club is the only one never to have been relegated from Ligue 1 on points?
Paris Saint-Germain
They came up for 1974-75; a 1972 demotion was administrative, after the split from Paris FC.
Delio Onnis
The Italian-born Argentine scored for Reims, Monaco, Tours and Toulon and was top scorer five times.
Q 25Whose 44 goals in 1970-71 remain the record for a single Ligue 1 season?
Josip Skoblar
The Marseille striker also won the European Golden Boot that year.
Q 26Which goalkeeper holds the record for Ligue 1 appearances with 618?
Mickaël Landreau
He played for Nantes, PSG, Lille and Bastia between 1996 and 2014.
Q 27Kylian Mbappé won his first Ligue 1 title with which club in 2016-17?
Monaco
It was the club's first title in 17 years.
Q 28How many times did Mbappé finish as Ligue 1's top scorer, a record?
Six
He also won Player of the Year a record five times.
Q 29Neymar's 2017 move to PSG cost how much, a world record?
€222 million
PSG simply paid the release clause in his Barcelona contract.
Q 30Which club is Zlatan Ibrahimović's Ligue 1 title haul of four consecutive championships associated with?
PSG
He was top scorer three times and left as the club's all-time leading scorer.