How Ligue 1 became a very unstable championship for coaches

Who will play for which Ligue 1 team for the first half of the 2025-2026 season, which begins Friday, August 15? For players, the decision will be made no later than September ¹ , the closing date of the summer transfer window . But for coaches, however, there's no timetable: clubs can recruit or part ways with a coach at any time. In 2015, Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa decided to resign from his position at Olympique de Marseille (OM)... just minutes after his men's home defeat on the first day of the French football championship.

Since the 1990s, and especially since 2000, the turnover rate on Ligue 1 benches has been increasingly high, according to data collected by Le Monde on the specialist website Transfertmarkt , which goes back to the 1945-1946 season. How can this dynamic be explained?

The tipping point was in the 1990s. Since the 1990-1991 season, an average of twelve coaches have not finished the season, compared to 7.6 between 1945 and 1989. The entry into the ^21st century has accelerated the trend even more: the average rose to 13.2 from 2010.

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