What is a ‘farmers league’ in football & why is France's Ligue 1 called that?

You will probably have noticed the term 'farmers league' when discussing Ligue 1, a league seemingly dominated by PSG.

But why is it called a 'farmers league', what are its connotations and why is it always used to describe Ligue 1? Goal takes a look.

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Why is Ligue 1 called a 'Farmers League'?

In European football, there is the idea that the "top five leagues" comprise of the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1. Of these European competitions, fans accuse Ligue 1 of being a 'farmers league'. Additionally, of those five, it is generally considered that Ligue 1 is the least elite of the competitions, though 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.

The term 'farmers league' is used to describe Ligue 1 by fans of rival leagues in a tongue-in-manner with an edge of mockery. Its definition is rather simple – by referring to Ligue 1 as a 'farmers league', they jokingly suggest that it is a competition made up of people who take up actual farming as their day job and then play football in the evening. Thus, they hint that Ligue 1 players aren't as skilled or at the level of other footballers in the other top five European leagues.

'Farmers league' is used in a derogatory way to look down upon Ligue 1 as certain spectators feel that it is also a league that is unfairly dominated by a single top club. PSG have dominated Ligue 1 in recent years, and the league seems to be capable of being only dominated by just one club during a certain period.

During 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 (save for one season in 2016-17 where they were pipped to the title by an impressive Monaco team) and they look to be dominators of France for the foreseeable future what with their financial backing and talented stars. As of March 2019, they have garnered a 20-point gap between themselves and Lille and have already run away with the title.

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The term 'farmers league' is also used to reference the fact that several Ligue 1 players leave the league to play in the more 'competitive' likes of the Premier League – leading to it also being dubbed a 'feeder league'. For instance, Eden Hazard left Lille in 2012 to sign for Chelsea, both Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante left to join Leicester, Anthony Martial left Monaco in 2015 to join Manchester United and Alexandre Lacazette left Lyon in 2017 to join Arsenal.

Recently, though, the investments in PSG and Monaco resulting in Ligue 1 becoming a more attractive option to world-class talents – and certain French clubs' academies tend to produce incredible players – have led to Ligue 1 improving its status as an elite league.

However, the issue of certain clubs always dominating at the top still reinforces the idea. Additionally, the fact that such a giant as PSG has under-performed in the Champions League supports the argument. Even in their dominant seasons, they have never progressed past the quarter-final of the competition and have been knocked out at the last-16 stage three times in a row between 2017 and 2019.

Even after the record-breaking acquisition of Neymar from Barcelona in 2018, PSG crashed out at the last 16 twice in as many years – first to Real Madrid and then Man United.

March 2019 has marked the first time since 2011 that not a single French club will appear in either the Europa League or Champions League last eight.

What are other examples of unofficial 'feeder' clubs or leagues?

Ligue 1 isn't the only seemingly 'feeder league' in football, or the only idea of a 'feeder' in the sport. In the Premier League alone, there are multiple clubs who seem to always offload their best players to certain teams.

The idea of a 'feeder club' is the idea that a club develops and grows their players only to sell them for a large sum of money to a rival team when they are at their peak. For instance, Southampton has built a reputation for being an unofficial 'feeder club' for Liverpool after agreeing to sell 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 period where Arsenal seemed to have been a feeder club for clubs like Manchester City and Barcelona. Towards the mid to late 2000s, they sold the likes of Thierry Henry, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Alexander Hleb, Cesc Fabregas and Alex Song to the Catalan giants. In the early 2010s, players such as Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna all switched North London for the Etihad.

In the Bundesliga, Bayern are known for poaching the star talents of the best Borussia Dortmund players including Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels, as well as the likes of Mario Gotze in previous years.