Originally posted by soccer_fan29
Hello!
I have some questions:
top 3 financially stable or rich teams in the french league?
Why can't french clubs keep their stars? Why do they sell them to barcelona or juventus or other teams? (I know they get alot of money in return but why not keep a few of them?)
top 3 popular teams?
top 3 teams in attendance?
and WTF is going on with PSG? they are in the bottom 3?!?! 
Top 3 Rich Teams:
1. Lyon (€82M)
2. Paris SG (€80M)
3. Marseille (€77M)
Lyon is first because they did Champions League each years since 2000 and they won 3 champions title since 2002.
Paris is second, because they're partcipating at Champions League and the budget is acount with €15/20M of TH Rights.
Marseille is third with the sale of Drogba to Cheslea, €37M.
Top 3 Popular Teams:
1. Marseille
2. Paris SG
3. Lens
Marseille has a lot of fans all around France, and for each games away, there are 1 000 or 2000 fans. Marseille is very popular since the Champions League won in 1993.
Paris is second, with the same thing as l'OM. Many fans, but less than Marseille.
Lens is third, they have a great stadium and a lot of fans especially in the North of France.
I could say St Etienne too since 1976 and Champions League lost. Some fans but too inconsistant, they can't stay in Ligue 1.
Top 3 attendances:
1. Marseille (51 795 fans each game)
2. Paris SG (40 000)
3. Lyon / Lens (36 000)
Marseille has the biggest stadium with a cpacity of 60 000. I heard that Stade Vélodrome could be a 80 000 places stadium in 2007.
Paris has the second biggest stadium, Parc des Princes has a capacity of 49.000 but it's old and there are many works each year.
Lyon and Lens has almost the same capacity, and Lyon has more fans since 3 years.
I don't know why French clubs can't keep their stars, maybe French clubs can't win Champions League at the moment or can't pay players as expensive as big European clubs. Moreover, there are more taxes on wage in France than in the rest of Europe. To play for Marseille, the most popular club in France isn't as great as play in Manchester United, Arsenal, Juventus or Chelsea. When Chelsea give us €37M, we can't compete. Young players like Meghni, Clichy, Mexès, Le Tallec or Pongolle went to other countries because their first contract finished and they couldn' sign in another French club. When you're a young player in France, you want to play in Ligue 1 yeah, but to play for big europeans teams is a dream. Maybe France has to create laws on develoment and formation for clubs as Auxerre or Cannes. Now the great players leave Europe young, like Hnery or Trezeguet. We still have somme good players who probably play for France NT, like Benoït Pedretti, Patrice Evra, Sébastien Squillaci, Eric Abidal. But that's pretty sure he'll leave France for European big teams.
We've a lot of great talents like Hatem Ben Arfa, Franck Ribéry, Jérémy Ménez, Jérémy Mathieu, Jacques Faty, Yohann Gourcuff, Nabil Taïder, Lucien Aubey, Albin Ebondo or Samir Nasri. I think a lot of them will play in other country in the next 6/7 years.
For Paris, I don't know why they sucks, maybe too much pressure, and new players like Yepes or Armand who're playing craply.
Is it good answers for your questions?
