French Ligue 1, Coupe de France & Coupe de la Ligue winners

Corruption, disaster, mergers and meanings

•  1: The RC before a club name generally stands for Racing Club.
•  2: The AS before a club name generally stands for Association Sportive.
•  3: The French league was started in 1894 by the U.S.F.S.A. (Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques). It was primarily played between Parisian clubs to start with and in a cup format until 1896. It's far too complex to go into here, but there is a full explaination at the excellent RSSSF article Origins of the French League.
•  4: CO Roubaix-Tourcoing were formed in 1945. They were created from a merger of Excelsior AC Roubaix, RC Roubaix and US Tourcoing.
•  5: In 1919 Gallia FAC were merged with Gymnaste Club de Nice. In 1924 after merging with Football Vélo Club de Nice the club renamed themselves Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice or OGC Nice for short.
•  6: RC Paris (Racing Club de Paris) were known as Racing CF (Racing Club de France) prior to 1932.
•  7: In the 1926/27 season the national Division d'Excellence was started by the Championnnat de France Amateur (C.F.A.), which lasted for three seasons.
•  8: Montpellier HSC (Hérault Sport Club) were originally called SO Montpellier.
•  9: The Coupe Sochaux was set up in the 1930/31 season. It lasted for 2 seasons and is thought of as a predecessor to the professional championship.
• 10: The 1932/33 season saw the beginning of the professional championship that continues to the present.
• 11: Lille OSC were formed in 1944. They were created from a merger of Olympique Lillois and SC Fives.
• 12: In 1992 before the SC Bastia v Olympique Marseille semi-final, there was a tragic stand collapse at Furiani stadium in Bastia, killing 19 people. The match was cancelled and it was decided not to play it, leaving no winner of the cup for that year.
• 13: No champion was declared as Olympique Marseille were stripped of their title, due to a corruption scandal.
• 14: There were various cup tournaments additional to the Coupe de France. The Coupe de la Ligue results are recorded from the 1994/95 season, which is when the winners qualified for the UEFA Cup. The previous tournaments are listed in the RSSF article List of League Cup Finals.

Research

I've cross referenced as much as possible and added links to the new club website where possible. Many thanks goes to the RSSSF Archive, which was an invaluable source of information whenever an insolvable fact was needed. If you need to find a football answer, it will be on there somewhere.