Photo: Ligue 1
Ligue 1 Opening Day - Photo: Ligue 1

Ligue 1 Opening Day: Time and Date

The 2021-22 Ligue 1 is set to begin from Saturday, August 7, 2021. The opening match will be held on 7 August, and the league will conclude on May 21, 2022. Ligue1 2021/22 will be the 84th season of the French League

Key Dates for Ligue 1 2021/22 Fixtures

Trophee des Champions will be held on August 1, 2021.

Ligue2 will begin from July 24 and conclude on May 14, 2022.

22 December 2021 will be the last matchday before winter break.

Ligue 1 will resume its post-winter matchday from 7 January 2022.

Relegation Playoffs will take place on 26 May and 29 May 2022.

Coupe de France Final will be held on 8 May 2022.

Ligue 1 2021-2022 Fixtures Opening Day

08 August 2021 (Round 1)

Team 1 Team 2
OL Brest
FC Metz Losc
As Monaco FC Nantes
Montpellier OM
Troyes Paris SG
Rennes RC Lens
Bordeaux Clermont
OGC Nice Reims
Asse FC Lorient
Strasbourg Angers SCO
Photo: Getty Images
Paris Saint-Germain named as Ligue 1 champions in 2020. Photo: Getty Images

How to stream Ligue 1 Opening Day Outside France with a VPN

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

New to VPNs? Not sure where to start? Just follow the steps below and you’ll be streaming Ligue 1 matches in no time:

  1. Choose a VPN designed for HD streaming. We mentioned ExpressVPN earlier, but NordVPN and CyberGhost are two high-performance, low-cost alternatives.
  2. Download and install the VPN software. There will be a few different versions, so be sure to get the right one for your operating system.
  3. Decide which of the sources below you’d like to use, then sign up. Note that you might need a payment method linked to an address in the required country.
  4. Connect to one of your VPN’s servers in the appropriate location. For instance, you’d use a British server for BT Sport, or a French one for Canal+.
  5. Try to watch a video on your chosen site. If you’re still getting errors, you might have to reload the page first. Afterward, content should play as normal.

How to watch a Ligue 1 Opening Day live stream in the UK

British viewers can stream Ligue 1 fixtures live and on-demand with BT Sport. This service allows users to watch either via the website or the BT Sport mobile app. Unfortunately, this service isn’t available on its own: you’ll need either a BT, Sky, or TalkTalk TV subscription before you can start streaming.

The price fluctuates wildly based on your current TV and broadband supplier. If you’re with BT, you can watch BT Sport online for £6 a month, but if you’re with Sky or TalkTalk, the price could be as high as £29.99 a month. It’s a bit unfair, but as BT has exclusive Ligue 1 broadcast rights in the UK, there’s isn’t much you can do about it.

To access BT Sport while traveling outside of the UK, you can simply connect to a UK VPN server.

BT Sport on Sky

Sky TV customers who want to access BT Sport through their Sky box have a couple of options available.

People who already have or switch to BT broadband can add BT Sport to Sky TV for less. Customers who don't have BT broadband can still add BT Sport to Sky, but it costs a little more.

The Sky TV only option mentioned above is for a 12-month contract, but there is also a 1-month option with a larger upfront fee. It's only available in SD though.

Sky TV and BT Broadband

Customers who have Sky TV boxes, but who take broadband from BT, can add the BT Sport pack to their viewing card.

It costs £20 a month with no activation charge. It's an extra £6.50 a month for BT Sport in HD, but HD is currently offered free for the first three months.

Customers can sign up via the BT website with their 9-digit Sky viewing card number.

Sky TV only

For Sky TV customers who don't have BT broadband, the BT Sport pack costs a bit more and comes to £29.99 a month. HD again costs an extra £6.50 a month.

There is a 12-month contract, but customers can choose a monthly rolling contract for a slightly higher setup fee - £35 instead of £20.

Those new to Sky TV can take advantage of cheaper prices by adding BT Sport during checkout directly with Sky. Taken this way, the BT Sport pack costs £25 a month and includes HD as standard. In addition, customers who also take the Sky Sports pack get a £3 per month discount on BT Sport, reducing it to just £22 a month.

How to watch a FREE Ligue 1 Opening Day live stream in the US

There’s just one Ligue 1 broadcaster in the US: beIN Sports. This company is known for its exceptional multi-language sports coverage, and the Ligue 1 is no exception. beIN Sports will show every Ligue 1 fixture in both English and Spanish in the US and Puerto Rico.

As yet, there’s no way to register exclusively to beIN Sports: if your cable package already includes beIN Sports, you can watch matches online at no extra cost. If it doesn’t, you’ll have to log in with your PlayStation Vue, fubo TV, or Sling TV subscription.

How much does beIN SPORTS cost?

There are three ways to subscribe to beIN SPORTS – a monthly plan, a yearly plan or through another streaming service that offers beIN Sports.. If you choose to use another platform, the cost will depend on their individual subscriptions or bundles available. If you choose to subscribe to beIN SPORTS CONNECT, a monthly plan will set you back $19.99 a month, with the yearly plan costing $179.99.

Both the monthly and yearly plan also come with a two-week free trial, meaning you can try before you buy. Just be sure to cancel after your free trial though, or you’ll be automatically rolled onto a recurring plan.

Payment can be made by credit and debit card, with both Visa and Mastercard accepted.

How to watch a FREE Ligue 1 Opening Day live stream in France

In France, the majority of Ligue 1 fixtures will be split between Canal Sports and beIN Sports. Canal Sports costs €19.90 per month, with a one-month free trial, and beIN Sports starts at €14 per month, although we’d recommend choosing the €15 plan instead to avoid being locked into a 12-month contract.

If you want to access games while you’re abroad, you can use a VPN to spoof your location and get a French IP address.

Canal+ Sport is a premium French TV channel. Much like ESPN in the US, the channel provides great sports like football (soccer for Americans), F1 racing, golf, basketball, and more. The channel itself is quite popular because it offers high resolution sports and has great coverage. If you are in France, you can watch it with a cable or satellite subscription. If you are traveling abroad, you would need to connect to a VPN.

Canal+ started broadcasting in 1984 and is 100% owned by the Canal+ Group. Though some of the programming is free to air, most of it is encrypted. Since those days, the group has become a major broadcaster in Europe. It runs several different channels including a sports channel, movie channel, and more.

Canal+ Sport started broadcasting in 2005 as a digital terrestrial TV network. It did not start broadcasting in high definition until 2008. Analogue terrestrial signals were turned off in 2010. Notable sports on the channel include the FIA Formula One World Championship and English Premier League. That is the most watched football league in the world.

You should not have to miss out on watching your favorite sports just because you are traveling overseas. That is where using a VPN is useful. Instead of being limited to France and it’s territories, you would simply need to connect to a server in France and log in to your Canal Play account. By doing so, you will be able to watch races, matches, and games like you normally would.

Which VPN service you choose depends on your goals. We have some good suggestions that will make things simple. If your goal is to only make sure you can watch all the content in the US or other libraries, you’ll want to take a look at ExpressVPN. They offer a Smart DNS service that will help you unblock any geo-restrictions that would prevent you from seeing the channel outside of France without the overhead of encryption. If you are more security minded, you’ll also want to check out ExpressVPN. They have a kill switch feature, and they do not keep any activity logs.

How to live stream Ligue 1 Opening Day in Australia

If you fancy watching top flight Spanish football Down Under, then you'll need to be a subscriber to beIN Sports who has secured exclusive live coverage rights to Ligue 1 for this season.

If you're a Foxtel customer, you can add beIN to your package for an extra fee. No worries if you aren't though, as you can also subscribe to beIN as a standalone subscription that can be watched on your laptop, desktop computer or mobile device. That costs $19.99 per month after you've taken advantage of a FREE two-week trial.

That said, sports streaming specialists Kayo Sports includes beIN in its package. The Basic plan costs just $25 a month and lets you stream on two screens, while Premium is a mere $35 a month for simultaneous viewing on up to three devices.

Of the two, Kayo Sports Premium represents the best value as it offers multi-screen support - which means you can effectively split the price of a monthly subscription between friends or family and pay less.

There's even a free 14-day Kayo Sports trial on offer, so you can check it out for yourself without committing a penny, and its app works across PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, select smart TVs and more, and it lets you watch a load of other great sports too, including NBA basketball, F1 and American football.

How to watch Ligue 1 Opening Day online: live stream France's top fixtures in New Zealand

From even a cursory glance at the rest of this article, you can probably guess who's showing Ligue 1 football in New Zealand. That's right...our old friends beIN Sports.

Sky subscribers can add beIN to their package at an additional cost or, like in Australia, you can subscribe to a standalone package that can be watched via your laptop, desktop or mobile app. It costs $19.78 per month after you've taken advantage of the FREE two-week trial.

Ligue 1 2021-22 Teams

2021/22 Ligue1 will feature 20 teams, 18 teams from the previous season and two promoted teams. The following teams will feature:

Club

Location

Venue

Angers

Angers

Stade Raymond Kopa

Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Matmut Atlantique

Brest

Brest

Stade Francis-Le Blé

Clermont

Clermont-Ferrand

Stade Gabriel Montpied

Lens

Lens

Stade Bollaert-Delelis

Lille

Lille

Stade Pierre-Mauroy

Lorient

Lorient

Stade du Moustoir

Lyon

Lyon

Groupama Stadium

Marseille

Marseille

Orange Vélodrome

Metz

Metz

Stade Saint-Symphorien

Monaco

Monaco

Stade Louis II

Montpellier

Montpellier

Stade de la Mosson

Nantes

Nantes

Stade de la Beaujoire

Nice

Nice

Allianz Riviera

Paris Saint-Germain

Paris

Parc des Princes

Reims

Reims

Stade Auguste Delaune

Rennes

Rennes

Roazhon Park

Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne

Stade Geoffroy-Guichard

Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Stade de la Meinau

Troyes

Troyes

Stade de l’Aube

  • Lille is the defending champion after winning the 2020/21 Ligue1
  • Ligue1 2021/22 will feature top teams including PSG, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco, Lille.
  • Troyes and Clermont are the two promoted teams from Ligue1.
  • Clermont will play in the Ligue1 for the first time while Troyes is back after a 3 year absence.
  • Dijon and Nimes are the two teams that got relegated after the 2020 Ligue1 season.

Will PSG return to winning ways and challenge for the title? Or teams like Lyon, Marseille, Monaco give the footballing world a new French champion? Get ready for an exciting season of French football once the Ligue 1 2021-22 schedule is released.

Ligue 2021-22 Team Changes

The changes in the teams for the season are that the Troyes and Clermont are promoted to 2021-22 Ligue 1. Troyes are promoted after a three-year absence whereas Clermont is promoted to Ligue 1 for the first time.

There are also two relegated from 2020-21 Ligue 1 is Dijon and Nimes. Dijon is relegated after five years in the top flight whereas Nimes are relegated after three years into the top flight.

Promoted to 2021-22 Ligue 1 Relegated from 2020-21 Ligue 1
Troyes Dijon
Clermont Nimes
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