The 1996–97 Division 1 season was the 59th since its establishment. AS Monaco won the French Association Football League with 79 points. Four teams were relegated to Second division and only two were promoted because in 1997–1998, only 18 would participate the championship.
Participating teams
Auxerre Bastia Bordeaux SM Caen AS Cannes EA Guingamp Le Havre AC RC Lens Lille OSC Olympique Lyonnais Olympique de Marseille FC Metz AS Monaco Montpellier HSC AS Nancy FC Nantes Atlantique OGC Nice Paris Saint-Germain FC Stade Rennais FC RC Strasbourg
League table
Promoted from Ligue 2, who will play in Division 1 season 1997/1998 LB Châteauroux : champion of Ligue 2 Toulouse FC : runners-up
Results
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals Football: D1 le classement des buteurs SAISON 1996-97 from L'Equipe (Archived from the original on 2011-8-20)1 Stéphane Guivarc'hRennes222 Japhet N'DoramNantes213 Sonny AndersonMonaco19 Alain CavegliaLyon David ZitelliStrasbourg6 Anto DrobnjakBastia187 Jean-Pierre PapinBordeaux16 Ludovic GiulyLyon9 Xavier GravelaineMarseille15 Patrice LokoParis Saint-Germain Awards Individual awards Award Winner Club Ligue 1 Player of the Year Sonny Anderson Monaco Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year Thierry Henry Monaco Ligue 1 Manager of the Year Jean Tigana Monaco Team of the YearGoalkeeper Fabien Barthez (Monaco)Defenders Patrick Blondeau (Monaco) Franck Silvestre (Auxerre) Franck Dumas (Monaco) Emmanuel Petit (Monaco)Midfielders Ibrahim Ba (Bordeaux) Sylvain Legwinski (Monaco) Ali Benarbia (Monaco) Japhet N'Doram (Nantes)Forwards Sonny Anderson (Monaco) David Zitelli (Strasbourg)
Attendances Source:
No. Club Average attendance Change 1 Paris Saint-Germain FC 35,582 -4.7% 2 RC Lens 22,977 -9.9% 3 FC Nantes 22,372 -8.6% 4 Olympique lyonnais 21,624 -2.8% 5 Girondins de Bordeaux 20,249 37.2% 6 Olympique de Marseille 17,862 -0.5% 7 RC Strasbourg 17,341 13.1% 8 SM Caen 15,893 24.7% 9 FC Metz 14,701 -8.1% 10 Stade rennais 13,177 1.1% 11 Le Havre AC 10,586 10.4% 12 AJ auxerroise 10,503 -4.6% 13 LOSC 10,347 19.3% 14 MHSC 10,125 2.0% 15 AS Nancy 9,239 29.7% 16 EA Guingamp 8,434 -26.6% 17 AS Saint-Étienne 8,061 -41.4% 18 AS Monaco 7,103 12.6% 19 SC Bastia 5,415 12.4% 20 OGC Nice 5,024 -7.5%
References
External links France 1996/97 at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation