To talk of Ligue 1, and the prize money available to its participating clubs, it is first and foremost necessary to detail the TV rights permacrisis that has plagued the league for many a year.
We can go all the way back to the 1980s for examples of this but keeping to the modern era, serious problems began to emerge in 2018 when Mediapro outbid all other competition and secured the lion’s share of the domestic broadcasting rights.
With BeIN Sports also along for the ride it meant the FLP – the French governing body for football – would benefit to the tune of a billion pounds (€1.15 billion).
Naturally, with 20% of Ligue 1’s prize money made up of media-related rewards it meant that clubs too would reap huge dividends.
The scale of the investment was second only to the billions paid out to screen Premier League matches in England and abroad, and many at the time believed the deal was too good to be true. In the event, the doubters were proven correct.
Mediapro insisted they could attract the 3.5 million subscribers needed to turn a profit but by late 2020 only 600,000 had signed up. Soon after, they walked away.
Add in a global pandemic and French football suddenly found itself in a financial tailspin but then remarkably history immediately repeated itself when DAZN successfully bid €500,000, again with BeIN Sports attached.
This time the sports streaming service needed 1.5 million subscribers to break even, eventually attaining only a third of that.
Ligue 1 Prize Money Table
- Winner - £52m
- Runner-up - £41.6m
- 3rd - £40.7m
- 4th - £34.6m
- 5th - £32.9m
- 6th - £27.7m
- 7th - £27.7m
- 8th - £26m
- 9th - £25m
- 10th - £24m
- 11th - £21.6m
- 12th - £21.6m
- 13th - £20m
- 14th - £19m
- 15th - £19m
- 16th - £18.2m
- 17th - £16.5m
- 18th - £16.5m
All of which has forced the FLP into committing to something entirely new this year, an innovative approach that has the rest of the world’s governing bodies watching on with keen interest.
This summer, they have gone it alone, setting up their own TV channel and platform, the service priced at a very reasonable €25 a month.
If ultimately successful it could fundamentally change the way football is covered going forward.
When we study the prize money that is being offered up to Ligue 1 clubs this season therefore, we must work on the basis that FLP’s ‘experiment’ has paid off, for them and the 18 top-flight clubs they represent. Let’s wait and see.
Ligue 1 prize money breakdown
Prize money handed out to the French elite is split into three brackets, with 50% of the overall pool divided evenly between the 18 clubs, no matter how well or poorly they fare in the league.
As stated, 20% comes from media-related rewards, with PSG, for example, remunerated more than Angers by virtue of the Parisians having a greater television presence and thereby bringing in a much higher number of viewers.
The remaining 30% is performance based, structured to reflect league finishes. It is the latter we’re focusing on below.
Last season, PSG received £52m for topping Ligue 1, furthermore doing so emphatically. Come May, the reigning Champions League winners had accumulated 19 more points than Marseille, a distant runner-up.
Granted, PSG’s wealth advantage must be factored in here – their wage bill being over double that of Marseille’s and three times more than Monaco, who came third – and of course, the European giant begins each campaign as firm favourite in the Ligue 1 odds.
Yet, with Luis Enrique constructing a vibrant and attack-minded team no-one can say they didn’t deserve to claim an eleventh title in 12 seasons. They did it in style. It should be noted at this point, incidentally, that the winners of the 2025/26 campaign are anticipated to earn a similar, if not identical, amount.
Might that be Marseille? Former Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi is building something decent on the South Coast and if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continues to fire in the goals then who knows?
Regardless, last May they were in receipt of £41.6m for being the best of the rest.
Les Phoceens were pushed all the way for the runner-up spot by Monaco, who achieved their fourth top three finish in five seasons, and there was little separating the clubs in financial terms either. Monaco was furnished with £40.7m.
Nice meanwhile took home £34.6m for coming fourth, in addition to gaining a Champions League qualifying spot.
Down the league ladder we go, past some famous names such as Lens and Auxerre, each receiving incrementally less prize money, until we get to the relegation spots.
For finishing rock-bottom and second last, Montpellier and Saint-Etienne received £16.5m apiece. The other relegated side, Reims, were tipped pre-season for a mid-table berth in the football betting but endured a tortuous ten months. They took £18.2m down with them to the second tier.
