DECRYPTION
This is the first time that this has happened in the history of the competition: two French clubs have qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League! Ligue 1, criticized for having stopped its championship, takes, with the qualifications of PSG and OL, a very nice revenge on its European neighbors ... and twists the blows to the bad reputation enjoyed by the French championship.
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"We do not respect Ligue 1 as it should"
Because abroad, when we talk about the French championship, we often attach a not very shining nickname: the "Farmers League", which one could trivially translate as the "League of the peasants". And for Lyon sports director Juninho, who played in France for 8 years, it is up to Ligue 1 itself to take the problem head on.
"I think that we ourselves, you, we do not respect Ligue 1 as it should," said the former player. "If Ligue 1 is weak, why do we come looking for French players every time? France is the best training there is, why all French players succeed in the Premier League, the most difficult championship?" -he.
"The talent league", a sometimes mocked slogan
For two years, the LFP has been trying to improve the image that other countries can have of the French championship, with a new identity, embodied by a slogan: "the League of talents". Slogan that made a lot of laughs at the time ... But that was before this last European square tinted with blue white red.