France – ranked 15th. Strange to see such low ranking – unlike Dutch football, the French were not in decline in the first half of the 1980s, but were going up and had fantastic players. Yet, in the same time certain decline of their club football was noticed – St. Etienne most strongly, but to a point Nantes was weakening. Funny, in a way – the French were almost as good, or bad, as the Swiss. And that at time when France was one of the most exciting and formidable national teams in the world – and the Swiss were in trouble and reorganizing as a result. Anyhow… Arguably, the best season ever for Bordeaux, inability of Paris SG to keep pace, strong recovery of Marseille.
Beyond the two professional leagues – some former full professional clubs of different degrees of familiarity:
FC Martigny
Le Mans
Troyes.
6 teams, however, realized their dreams of going up – or rather returning – to professional level:
Dijon
Melun
FC Lorient
Chatellerault
FC Grenoble and
FC Rouen.