PSG are no farmers. But Ligue 1 is a bore without competition

LIGuE 1 is not a farmers’ league. It is not a particularly good league, though, no matter the presence of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

Having Bayern Munich in opposition does not vindicate the Bundesliga, either. One outstanding team dominating every year is not a league. So Serie A also has nothing to be proud of.

You know who has a good league? Albania. Georgia. Not strong leagues, but competitive. The last four seasons, four different champions.

KF Tirana, Partizani Tirana, Skenderbeu and Kukesi in Albania; Dinamo Tbilisi, Saburtalo, Torpedo Kutaisi and Samtredia in Georgia.

There has been an awful lot of revisionism because this year’s Champions League semi-finals were a Franco-German split. An awful lot of crowing at the expense of the Premier League.

Best in the world, eh? The arrogant English, taken down a peg or two. And, yes, Lyon did defeat Manchester City. But so did Wigan in the 2018 FA Cup and it did not place our League One among the greatest in Europe, either.

Last year, France did not have a representative in the last eight of either European competition. This year, it had PSG and Lyon but in essence nothing changed.

It wasn’t that France previously had a dreadful league — a farmers’ league as critics apparently called it — and now has a very good one. It has got the same

league. PSG dominate and the others cannot compete.

And PSG are a very good team who should have gone far in the Champions League before — but their success is not representative of the health of French domestic football, any more than Bayern Munich fly the flag for Germany.

Munich’s domination of the modern Bundesliga is a tragedy, turning a once-great competition into an annual procession.

The same for Juventus and Serie A, even if Inter Milan are closing. Competition makes for a great league, not the wider success of one super club.

Manchester City’s defeat does not alter the fact that the Premier League is open and relatively strong. That is why it is profitably consumed worldwide and why it is hated and envied across Europe.

Since the Premier League was formed in 1992-93, only seven countries have produced Champions League finalists. Portugal and Holland have one each — Porto and Ajax.

France will now join Italy and Germany in producing three — Marseille, Monaco and PSG — to go with AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.

Spain have four — Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Valencia.

ENGLAND stands alone, top of the table, five different clubs into the Champions League final — Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. And the most dominant team of the recent decade, Manchester City, are not there yet.

This is the best of both worlds, as competitive as Albania but strong enough to hold its own in Europe, most seasons.

There have been five different champions of England across eight years and two of those clubs — Leicester and Manchester City — haven’t contended a modern Champions League final.

The equivalents in the other major leagues are Wolfsburg (2009), Roma (2001) and Deportivo La Coruna (2000).

Meaning a tiny group dominates at home and, subsequently, in Europe.

So while Ligue 1 is most certainly not a league for agronomists, it cannot be judged successful as a competition while one team dominates. nor is the Bundesliga, nor Serie A.

It will be a good final on Sunday, between undoubtedly the best teams at this unique mini-tournament, but let us not pretend there is a wider message about the strength of domestic club football emerging from Lisbon.

What is happening across Europe’s major leagues is a colossal failure. If we’re talking farms, one club should not harvest the trophy every year.