Earlier today I was clicking around www.fff.fr . I know all about the first two divisions in France, but after a few minutes of looking around I became amazed at the scope of club soccer. I had no idea about the Regional and Departmental championships, many of which it appears of a few divisions of their own. Just as an example, the Eure Deparmental league appears to have 4 divisions which feed into the 2 divisions of the Normandy regional league. (of course my French is severely limited, so I may have understood wrong.) Now, having seen the literally hundreds of clubs that compete in France, I'm curious as to how it's all structured. How do teams earn promotion from the regional leagues into the national division? Does the pro/rel system go as deep as the lowest departmental divisions? Do all of the clubs compete in the French cup? I was a little surprised to see just how massive the structure is, and although I realize that the quality of the lowest divisions is probably no better than what I'd find being played in my local park I am now curious to learn a little more about the sport in the lower divisions of France.
French league system............ The French league system make the Clubs,I meant ALL the clubs compete on the French Cup. from the U.S. Saint-Valentin-sur-Cher(made-up city name ...LOL) to Paris-SG and my fav' team,E.A.Guimgamp....most Leagues in Europe,if not all of 'em,are doing like this. The two first divisions in France are professional(Ligue 1 and Ligue 2)The three last in Ligue one are going down to Ligue 2 at the end of the season,and of course,the three first of Ligue 2 goes up. when you come to the "National",only a few teams are having professional status,since they were at least Ligue 2 a while ago before going down...).going down to the next divisions(from CFA1 to the bottom league in the country),it's more a local competition,.The groups are made on a geographical point of view(for example,a local Parisian team will play with,on its group,teams from around the area mostly,at least not too far,since those teams don't have a lot of money to pay for the numerous trips they would have to make if the groups weren't "geographic",if you see what I mean.) In fact,the lower the division will be,the closest your opponents will be from your town,for obvious financial reasons. As far as promotion system is concerned,if you win your league,you go up,but when you are at the very high level up at National(like a division 3),the F.F.F. has some requirements as far as minimum Stadiums capacities and as far as financial capacities the club must have. I hope this messy explanation was good enough for you to understand,I believe this system,which I trust is the same in most of Europe,is the best way to improve the game.any more questions about France's soccer??don't hesitate,ask...