retired_oldfierce

psg anything but strong these days

marseille not a bad outfit, nothing special though

and lyon not the force they were 2 years ago </BLOCKQUOTE>

Whs, and also iirc Football is the most popular sport overall, but i think Rugby Union is more popular in the South of France.

retired_sedimohasel

Couple of things, first of all I think the main reason is what super_imps said, the taxes. And it's not only income taxes it's also taxes the employer has to pay which are called "charges" in France. (i.e. to give someone $100,000 a month the employer - club in this case - has to give the government something ridiculous like $80,000 every month) Then the income taxes are ridiculous, it was 56.8% for people making a lot of money until very recently when Sarkozy voted a law saying that you shouldn't have to give more than 50% of your income to the government. I don't know when it will actually become effective but I guess 2008.
Then about the Monaco exception it is true EXCEPT if you have a French passport. That's an agreement that De Gaule made with Monaco a while back, you don't pay taxes there unless you are French then you pay taxes to the Prince of Monaco who gives this money back to the French government.
That being said (and I think this is by far the main reason) the passion for sports in general is not quite as high in France as it is in England or Spain (can't talk about Italy I don't know it this well) but football is definitely by far the most popular sport in France even if as someone said Rugby is very popular in the south of the country.

~TheMadHatter~

Thanks guys, good stuff so far, thanks for that taxes story wasn't aware of that at all!

retired_sedimohasel

np

The taxes story is probably the main reason for weak french league imo. Why would a good player stay in France and earn half of what he would in England or Spain? (assuming the club spends the same amount of money for him)

retired_Frappin'

I'd say 1 Euro Championship, 1 World Cup, 1 World Cup Runners Up since 1998 makes up for two $hitty results against an in form Scottish side and James McFadden.

retired_Frappin'

It also appears that this cycle will only get worse until something is done about it.

As the league gets weaker less and less quality french players will want to play there.

retired_sedimohasel

Agree. That's pretty much what happened in Holland

retired_koenigal08

Aye but you only won those because you did not come up against the God that is McFadden.

To be fair, French Football just needs to do what Scotland was force to do and try and bring in as many of their own players and sell them on

It has worked for years for France, but to say the League is weak because not many stars play there is wrong. IMHO the best thing for France National Side is the fact they are playing all over Europe. Look at the English league, dominated by Foreigners and yet, their National Side could be, by 23 November 2007 be below Scotland in the World Rankings, and for the first time find themselves in Pot 2 with Scotland in Pot 1*

French Football, just like Germany, and maybe Scotland will look to their neighbours, but then they can look at themselves and say... foreigners will not out number us, which to me is something that France should be proud of!

I know I keep going back, but it is what I know, the greatest thing to happen to Scotland (National Side) was the money dropping out of the game.

retired_koenigal08

*damm it forgot to finish the post*

so, because France does not have the big starts at their peak does not mean it is not a good league. The fact you produced these starts that are playing abroad is though

retired_sedimohasel

France has great youth academies that's unarguable but does it make the league good? Not even close.

The fact that the English national team is struggling has nothing to do with it. Look at Italy for a counter exemple, great league and great national team and they have plenty of foreigners in their teams.