France - Super Cup

About Super Cup

Super Cup History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The Trophée des Champions, also known as the French Super Cup, is a men's football trophy contested annually between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. Reinstated in 1995 by the France Football Federation (FFF) after the old contest was scrapped due to its unpopularity in previous years, the match is played at the beginning or in the middle of every new season and is hosted at varied venues.

As mentioned earlier, the French Super Cup dates back a long time and can be traced back to 1949 when 1948-49 top-flight champions Stade de Reims beat 1948-49 Coupe de France winners RCF Paris. The FFF held a similar event named the Challenge des Champions from 1955 to 1973 before reintroducing the French Super Cup in its current format during the turn of the century.

In 2009, the FFF announced that the Trophée des Champions would be played outside of France for the first time in history, with the tournament taking place at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that year. It has since been held in Tunisia, Morocco, the United States, Gabon, China and Israel.

The 1996 Trophée des Champions was canceled after Auxerre won the league and cup double the previous season. This nearly happened again in 2008 when Lyon won the double but the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), the event’s current organizers, decided to allow the Ligue 1 runners-up to face Les Gones. This has since become the norm whenever one team wins both the top flight and domestic cup.

Broadcasting rights for the Trophée des Champions are often bundled into the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 rights. As a result, the French Super Cup has made it onto the screens of several well-known broadcasters, with beIN Sports holding the rights between 2013 and 2020 before Canal+ returned for the 2021 edition after a nine-year absence.