leohoenig
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Jun 12, 2012, 10:17 PM
Posts: 7567
Location: Outer Cheltenhamshire
Team(s): Cheltenham Town
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Not counting the one at the entrance to the Louvre.
Ligue 1. 20 teams. Basic fixture list 2012/3 is already on line, running from 10 August to 26 May. The league has a short Christmas break from 22 December to 12 January, but there is probably a French Cup round on 5 January.
Two automatic and one qualifying place in Champions League. Only one league position guarantees a place in the Europa League, as places are given to the winners of both Coupe de France, and Coupe de la Ligue (League Cup).
Three teams relegated.
Ligue 2. 20 teams, tendency to play matches on Fridays, starts two weeks before Ligue 1, finishes same weekend.
Three teams promoted, three teams relegated.
National DIvision. 20 teams, 3 promoted, four relegated. Also tends to play Friday.
CFA, Championnat France Amateur
Four groups, with Champions promoted.
This is the highest level reserve teams can play at, with 5 in group A, 4 in group B, 3 in group c and 4 in group D
Generally, two teams relegated, but group B is one short, so only one relegated here.
CFA 2,
Eight groups of 16 teams with one promoted, and four relegated.
Below this, there are 22 Regions.
Alsace, Aquitaine, Atlantique, Auverge, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre, Centre-Ouest, Champagne-Ardennes, Corse,
Franche-Comte, Languedoc-Roussillon, Lorraine, Maine, Mediterranee, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord Pas-de-Calais, Normandie, Paris Ile-de-France, Picardie & Rhones-Alpes.
(if looking them up on www.fff.fr, be warned that some of the outre mer territories are listed as well)
All of the 22 regions have a top division, normally called Division Honneur or something similar, they then all have their local pyramids with numbers, number of groups, promotion and relegation decided on local factors. Either one or two teams are promoted from each region to the CFA2. I do not know the mix.
I cannot list all the individual pyramids, but this is the one for Nord Pas-de-Calais. This is not entirely typical, as it is bigger and has more clubs and divisions than most.
Step 6. Division Honneur. 14 teams.
Step 7. Division Honneur Regional. 14 teams
Step 8. Promotion Honneur. 2 groups of 12 teams
Step 9. Promotion Honneur Regional. 3 groups of 12 teams
Step 10. Promotion de la Ligue. 5 groups of 12 teams
Step 11. District Leagues - the Districts are Artois, Cote d'Opale, Escaut, Flandre, and Maritime Nord.
Artois consists of Excellence (14 teams), Promotion Excellence (2 groups of 12), Premier (3 groups of 12), Promotion Premier (4 groups of 12), Deuxieme (5 groups of 12) and Promotion Deuxieme (6 groups of 12)
Excuse me for not looking up the number of teams in each division. The number in brackets is number of groups.
Cote d'Opale has Excellence (2), Premier (4), Promotion Premier (5), Deuxieme (6), Promotion Deuxieme (7), 3rd (10) and 4th (10)
Escaut has Excellence (1), Promotion Excellence (2), Premier (3), Promotion Premier (4), Deuxieme (5), Promotion Deuxieme (6), 3rd (7) and 4th (6)
Flandre has Excellence District (2), Promotion Excellence (2), Promotion District (4), First (4), Second (4) and Third (2)
Finally, Maritime Nord has Excellence (1), 1st (2), 2nd (2), 3rd (3) and 4th (5).
- so in one district, there is an 18th level!
While I am not listing all the leagues in all the regions, it is worth comment on Paris Ile-de-France, which has four levels below CFA2, and above district, known by the initials DH, DSR, DHR, and PH (I think that is Division Honneur, Division Superiore Regional, Division Honneur Regional and Promotion Honneur), but all have the initial DAM as well, which I believe stands for Dimanche Apres-Midi (Sunday Afternoon). There are 7 districts within the Region.
There is also a Sunday Morning Championship with three divisions in Paris region, and then more in some of the districts, teams in this appear to be listed as a club's 5th team. Some have teams in Sunday afternoon or other championships as well. An example is Maccabi Creteil who have one team (marked as their 5th team) in the third level of the regional Sunday morning league, and a 6th team in the district Val de Marne Sunday Morning League.
I do not know if there is a Sunday Morning League outside Paris.
Paris St Germain has a First Team (First Division), Second Team (CFA, Group A), Third Team (Paris IDF, DAM DH i.e top Sunday afternoon league in Paris), Fourth Team (Paris IDF, DAM PH Group 4, i.e fourth level of Sunday Afternoon Football in Paris), and Fifth Team (Paris IDF, DM DH - top level of Sunday morning league)
Then there is Football Enterprise. This appears to be completely seperate. As the name suggests, all teams are company teams. There is a French National Football Enterprise Competition, divided into two regional groups. Each group should have nine teams, playing only eight games each, but one team in group B has withdrawn. The top two in each group then play in crossover semi-finals. The second division national has two groups of seven, so these teams have a season of six games only. In Nord, Pas-de-Calais, the top division of the Enterprise is Division Honneur, 9 teams playing 16 games a season. The champions of this, Lille Estera also finished 8th of the 9 teams in group A of the top national division, and played in the Enterprise National Cup. The second level in Nord Pas-de-Calais is DHR (one group, 9 teams, 16 matches), and the third and lowest level is Enterprise Promotion Honneur, two groups of 8, 14 matches - the top 4 then play 4 extra games against the top 4 in the other group, while teams 5-7 play 3 extra games against teams from the other group. The last team in each group finishes at 14 games (I think).
It is at this level that I am being dragged (against my better judgement) to a game Saturday. Lille Delpharm against Lille Droit, called off on May 12th. Delpharm were top of Group B with 47 points, and have won 2, lost one in their play offs. Droit were fourth in their group, but have won all 3 play off games.
Fat AND Pompous.
I was going to list all my grounds for the season, but the moderator said five lines only.
Now blogging at www.leohoenig.com
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