Ligue de Football Professionnel - Foundation

Foundation

The history of the Ligue de Football Professionnel dates back before World War II when the committee's primary motive was to ensure clubs in France pay players their wages. The chairman of the early predecessor of the league was Emmanuel Gambardella. Another committee, which monitored professional clubs and the status of professional players also existed during this time and was headed by Gabriel Hanot, who was later responsible for the creation of the European Cup, now the UEFA Champions League. During the Vichy regime, professionalism in France was abolished, which led to clubs forming unpopular regional amateur leagues. Under the current LFP hierarchy, the years 1939–1945 are non-existent.

Following the conclusion of the war, many clubs were hesitant to follow the initiatives of the French Football Federation due to their belief that the federation were not thinking in their best interests and, instead, opted to join an initiative by Gambardella referred the Groupement des clubs autorisés. On 27 October 1944, the Ligue Nationale de Football (National Football League) was officially founded with Gambardella being installed as the organization's first president. The league changed its name back to Groupement des clubs autorisés shortly after and kept the name until 1970 before returning to Ligue Nationale de Football. In 2000, the league changed its name to the Ligue de Football Professionnel.