Première Ligue

The Première Ligue, known as Division 1 Féminine or D1 Féminine until the 2024-25 season, is France’s top-flight women’s football league. Founded in 1975 by the French Football Federation (FFF), the league is currently administered by the Ligue féminine de football professionnel (LFFP) and has had professional status since the 2009-10 campaign.

The Première Ligue season typically begins in August or September and concludes in May or June of the following year. The league features 12 teams competing in a 22-match regular season, followed by a postseason playoff to determine the French champion.

The regular season uses a double round-robin format, where teams play each other home and away. At the end of the regular season, the top four clubs advance to the playoffs while the bottom two teams are relegated to France's second-division women’s football league, Division 2 Féminine.

The playoffs are structured as single-elimination matches, with the first-placed team facing the fourth and the second taking on the third. The winners of these matches qualify for the UEFA Women’s Champions League and compete in the final for the Première Ligue title. Additionally, a third-place playoff between the two losers determines the league’s third representative in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

The format has evolved over time, featuring a playoff system from 1974 to 1992 and again from 2001 to 2004 before its reintroduction in 2023. Until 2016-17, the division mirrored France’s amateur men’s league, awarding four points for a win, two for a draw, and one for a loss. It now follows the traditional 3-1-0 points system: three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss.

Stade de Reims Women enjoyed early success in this competition, lifting the first three titles in a row. However, Olympique Lyonnais has been the most dominant club, winning every season in the 2010s and claiming 14 consecutive titles between 2007 and 2020, until PSG ended that streak in 2021.