PSG dominate in France as rivals can’t keep up — on or off the pitch
The top flight in France seems more like a procession than a competition.
Life in Paris is far from normal at present — a world summit, demonstrations banned, 2,800 police and soldiers at Le Bourget, another 6,300 on the streets — but for PSG, it is business as usual.
On Saturday they met Troyes, already seven points adrift at the foot of Ligue 1 and destined for relegation. The only surprise was the margin of victory, 4-1 rather than 10-1 or more. When Edinson Cavani opened the scoring after 20 minutes, the visitors could already have been three down. Cavani now has eight for the season, the same total as the entire Troyes team.
However, the most telling gap is at the top of the league, not the bottom.
The two sides beneath PSG, Caen and Angers, have never come close to winning the title although 50 years ago Angers did manage to finish third.
Lyon are 16 points behind, Monaco and Marseille even more, and the other hypothetical contenders — Bordeaux and Montpellier — are out of sight.
PSG are obviously heading for their fourth straight title. That wouldn’t be a record — Lyon managed seven in a row from 2002 — but this run has the signs of becoming a potential monopoly.
PSG can call on more resources than the rest of the league put together. The city is a big pull for star players. Paris does have two other football clubs, and Red Star have a distinguished history — but the last time they were in the top flight was 1975.
Some of the gap between PSG and the rest will be addressed by proposed reforms of French football finance, and for a time last season, it looked as if both Marseille and Lyon might put in a real challenge on the pitch.
Marseille had a sensational season until January. But like games, seasons have two halves, and sustaining a challenge is proving very hard for potential rivals.
Marseille and Monaco demonstrated both the attractions and the weakness of French football at the weekend with a pulsating match at the Vélodrome that finished 3-3.
Good to watch, full of thrills and spills, including a couple of doubtful offside decisions in favour of the home side, but also frustrating for their fans.
Marseille are far less formidable at home than they used to be: Just two league wins so far this season. Some blame the stadium renovation, saying the crowd somehow seems tamed. The same disease appears to have infected Lyon and Bordeaux, while Monaco’s Stade Louis II — capacity 18,523 — has never been a hotbed of support.
In a season that is meant to climax with the European championships next June, a one-team title race is not good news — although Bayern Munich’s dominance in the Bundesliga hasn’t damaged Germany’s performance.
But PSG are not exactly a ‘French team’. Only one of their players, Blaise Matuidi, was in the France squad for the recent friendlies.
One of the minor stories of this season so far is the performance of Corsican newcomers Gazelec.
In their debut season in the top league, Ajaccio’s second team secured just one point from their opening six games. Oblivion beckoned. But with four scalps from their last six matches, Bordeaux and Nice among them, they’re showing that success in football is not just winning titles.
