Top leagues:
Ligue 1 (UEFA ranked 5)
Average attendance 2010/11: 20,089
20 teams.
Top 3 into Champions League, 4th, 5th and cup winners into Europa League. Bottom 3 relegated.
League website: http://www.ligue1.com/

Ligue 2
Average attendance 2010/11: 7,323
20 teams.
Top 3 promoted into Ligue 1.
League website: http://www.ligue1.com/ligue2/calendrier_resultat

Season: August to early May, short winter break over Christmas/ New Year.

Kick off times: Ligue 1, regular league matchday kick off is 7pm on Saturday night and usually six of the ties are played then. One further game starts at 9pm - then there are three on Sunday, two at 5pm and one at 9pm. These all fit in with TV. Ligue 2 plays at 8pm on a Friday night, with a further game on Saturday at 2.30pm and Monday at 8.30pm.

The simple truth is the French have won more than dear old England - and at the turn of the millennium they were World and Euro champions.

However, as England's powerful league has failed to produce a successful national side, France's problem has been the other way. Great national side (at times) but never quite at the top table of club football.

The French Liga is no Mickey Mouse affair - indeed it now boasts gates to rival Serie A in Italy - but it has only managed to produce two European champions in the past half century.

They were both in relatively recent times - Marseille landed the all new Champions League by beating mighty AC Milan, whilst Paris Saint-German lifted the former Cup Winnners Cup.

There have been a few great runs, and Monaco made it all the way to the Champions League final in 2004, only to lose to The Special One's Porto.

Domestically one team now stands head and shoulders above the rest - Lyon, or Olympique Lyonnais, to give them their full name. Their league victory in 2008 was their seventh title on the bounce, a record even the mighty Liverpool of the seventies would struggle to match. Amazingly, before then they had never won the title. They are still chasing the all-time record of ten titles held by Saint Etienne.

They have gone on to give a good showing in Europe too, reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League for the past five years - but, like England, they just can't quite seem to get past the quarters.