French Football Ups & Downs 2025-26: Promotions, Relegations & European Places

Here are the French Football Promotions, Relegations & European Places for the 2025-26 season.

Updated June 4, 2026. You can skip ahead to this season’s final results here.

After every season, as it is all over Europe, French football clubs go up, go down, and get into Europe. Here’s an explainer of how that works and what happened after the 2025-26 season.

League Structure in French Football

As in all countries, France has tiers of leagues in its football structure. At the top is Ligue 1, and just below that is Ligue 2, then Ligue 3, and so on. Ligue 1 has 20 teams per season; Ligue 2 has 20 as well.

Connecting all of this is a system of promotion and relegation, described in detail below.

Here is a map of French clubs for the 2026-27 season.

Here is a post all about promotion and relegation in other top European football leagues.

Buying Ligue 1 tickets can be tricky, but Groundhopper Guides are official sellers for several Ligue 1 clubs. Get in touch today to see how we can help!

French Football Clubs Qualifying For Europe

At the end of each Ligue 1 season, the following French teams go to Europe:

• Nos. 1 through 4 qualify for the next season’s Champions League.
• No. 5 goes to the Europa League
• No. 6 goes to the Europa Conference League
• The winner of the Coupe de France goes to the Europa League. If they already qualified for the Champions League via the table, then #6 goes to Europa League and #7 to Conference League.

How Does Promotion and Relegation Work in French Football?

Promotion and relegation in French football is generally similar to other countries.

• The bottom two in Ligue 1 go down automatically
• The top two in Ligue 2 go up automatically
• There is a two-legged playoff between #18 in Ligue 1 and #3 in Ligue 2, with the winner playing in Ligue 1 the next season.

We Are Official Sellers of These French Football Tickets

2025-26 Promotions, Relegations and European Places in France

Here is the top of the final 2025-26 French Ligue 1 table. Links are to our profiles or tickets pages for each club.

1. PSG Champions League (Buy PSG Tickets)
2. Lens Champions League
3. Lille Champions League (Buy Lille Tickets)
4. Lyon Champions League (Buy Lyon Tickets)
5. Marseille Europa League (Buy Marseille Tickets)
6. Rennes Europa League because Lens also won the Coupe de France
7. Monaco Conference League

Relegated from Ligue 1 to Ligue 2

• Metz
• Nantes

Promoted from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1

• Le Mans
• Troyes

In the playoff, Nice of Ligue 1 beat Saint-Étienne of Ligue 2, 4-1, to stay in Ligue 1.

This map shows where all the French football clubs are, in Ligue 1 (blue) and Ligue 2 (red) for the 2026-27 season.

Buy Ligue 1 Tickets

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