Professional on paper, broke in practice
Some clubs simply said no. Offered a place in the second tier of French women’s football, they turned it down, and the reason had nothing to do with sport. The 2026-2027 season starts this Friday with both top divisions officially fully professional, a status that reads well in a press release and badly on a balance sheet.
Running a professional women’s section costs more than several of those clubs can absorb. That verdict is not coming from outside critics. It comes from the people signing the cheques, who have started describing the whole exercise as patronage rather than a business.
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Thirteen years later, Toulouse walk back in
TFC are back in the Premiere Ligue. Their last spell at this level ended in 2013, and the return has not been given a soft landing: Montpellier away on Saturday, 6pm kick-off.
Montpellier have been fixtures in this division for as long as anyone can remember, with a squad and an infrastructure that promoted sides usually spend two or three seasons trying to match. Toulouse’s first home game follows on 12 September against Le Havre at the Stadium.
Paris drew Chelsea and Bayern in the same afternoon
Friday also brought the league phase draw for the women’s Champions League, and PSG were not spared. Chelsea. Bayern Munich. Two of the heaviest names in the pot, both landing on the same slate.
OL Lyonnes, beaten finalists last time out, got no favours either. Paris FC make up the third French entry in the league phase.
So three French clubs will spend the autumn in Europe’s top competition while part of the second division works out whether it can afford to exist at all.
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