Ligue 1 catching up with the Premier League, Riolo pulls no punches

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·21 de outubro de 2025

Ligue 1 catching up with the Premier League, Riolo pulls no punches

Daniel Riolo, journalist for RMC Sport, spoke on the media’s airwaves to highlight Ligue 1. He notably used a comparison between the PSG/Strasbourg and Liverpool/Manchester United matches to make his point. According to him, it’s clear: the French championship has made real progress.

Riolo: “It’s an incredible upheaval.”

“I see almost only good matches, at the very least good intentions. Even if sometimes the defenses aren’t as strong. To gauge the level of your league, it’s about those midweek nights. For years, we suffered on Thursdays watching the points earned for the UEFA coefficient. Now, sometimes you can even joke about a clean sweep. It’s an incredible upheaval. When I look at other leagues, I’ve often said England is the benchmark, the strongest, whatever… But, I’m sorry, Liverpool-United was not as good as PSG-Strasbourg. I didn’t watch the Ligue 1 multiplex to see that big match in England. I want to see the Classico, matches in Italy.”

Riolo: “We need to confirm in the second half of the season.”

“But Lille went and won in Rome, we’ll see. We need to confirm in the second half of the season. I hope to see Strasbourg pull off something big in the Conference League. I’m delighted, I love what I’m seeing.”

It’s refreshing to hear positive comments about a Ligue 1 that has often been criticized by “specialists” and journalists in France. Including Riolo, by the way. But there has been improvement in playing philosophies, which can help showcase certain talents.

Vídeos OneFootball

These talents have always been there, even if some preferred to put players down because of a sometimes very defensive style of play. The same players were later admired abroad. Foreign leagues are often glorified, even though many only see highlights and focus on just a few teams.

There is real quality in France, where the main challenge is to keep players a bit longer. But we’ve seen interesting signings, clubs that are finally managing to build real teams intelligently. Let’s hope this continues, with club leaders able to work in harmony rather than the tensions we’ve seen, so we can regain stability in TV rights. This could come through the success of Ligue1+, after an encouraging start.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.