(Reuters) – France’s top-tier Ligue 1 will be reduced from 20 teams to 18 from the 2023-24 season after the general assembly of the French professional league (LFP) voted on the proposal, L’Equipe newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Ligue 1 has had 18 teams in the past but was last expanded to 20 teams in the 2002-03 season. The current format has the bottom two clubs relegated while the 18th-placed side enters the relegation playoffs.
The assembly reached a provisional agreement to reduce the number of sides, with four teams to be relegated from Ligue 1 in the 2022-23 season and two promoted from the second tier.
A vote was taken on when to introduce the new rules, with a split vote of nine each for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, before LFP president Vincent Labrune proposed not making the switch until 2023-24.
Among the top leagues in Europe, Germany’s Bundesliga also has 18 top-flight teams with 34 rounds of matches instead of the standard 38.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
